[Cotyla quid? On the early history of late medieval medical volume calculations].
As can be made evident chiefly by their comparative numerical examination, the Egyptian pyramids (the step pyramids being excluded for the present purpose) have been, from the beginning up to the Egyptian fashion in early Imperial Rome, designed and built with the additional intention of physically manifesting a volume of pi x 10k x (average value) 0.96824 cm3, where k is either a positive integer or zero, and where pi is a short product, following very restrictive formation rules which to some extent are traceable in the papyrus Rhind, of prime numbers. Conceptually (but not really as to the Hin at least) this establishes the capacity units 1 [2]Heqat = 9682.4 cm3 and 1 Hin = 484.12 cm3 already for the Old Kingdom. It is shown further that the Attic Medimnos as introduced in the course of finishing Solon's reforms is identical with the Egyptian volume system's standard unification: pisigma = 2 x 3 x 5 x 7 x 11 x 23, and k = 0, so that 1 Medimnos = about 51443 cm3. Accordingly and by means of some adjacent considerations a Kotyle / Cotyla of 269 cm3 +/- 1 cm3 is established for the Hellenistic, early Arabic, and Medieval Latin medicine.
Bergmann
Axel
A
Institut für Geschichte der Pharmazie der Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg.
D004534:Egypt; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D014894:Weights and Measures