Grain measures: quartera, barcella and almud

What is

The family of capacity measures for Mallorca grain. Each name is both a quantity and the wooden or metal container that contains it (DCVB).

• Quartera (in Mallorca it is also pronounced and written cortera): the largest measure. In the Balearic Islands, 70.34 liters (DCVB, according to Llensa).
• Barcella: the sixth part of the quartera.
• Almud (aumud): the sixth part of the barcella.
• Mig almud (or simply a mig): half of the almud.

How is

• Wooden (sometimes metal) containers with iron rings: «dos almuts ferrats» (1373, DCVB).
• The barcella had fixed measurements: an old document speaks of one and a half spans high "dintre la taula" (DCVB; exact Mallorcan dimensions, to be verified).
• They were filled and scraped with a stick so as not to give or remove grain (rasador; the term is documented in the Empordà; Majorcan name, please verify).

How is fa

• Work of fuster or boat: staves or boards with rings, like a cube with a flat base.
• The Llucmajor bushel has another technical meaning: the bushing of the trull de noodle grinding wheel (DCVB).

Com s'usa

• The harvest is measured on the threshing floor, the rent to the lord, the tithe, the sale in the market.
• The quartera was also a measure of land: the surface where a quartera of seed is planted (DCVB).
• In Mallorca, quartera is also the grain chamber in the pagès house (DCVB, Mall.).

Vocabulary

• quartera / cortera — 70.34 l in the Balearic Islands; six barcelles.
• barcella — sixth part of the quartera; six bushels in the Balearic Islands (four in Valencia).
• almud / aumud — sixth part of the barcella.
• mig almud / a mig — half a almud.
• quartera (Mall.) — house barn.
• "Set aumuds no fan barcella" — it is said about what yields little (Mall.). Seven does not make six because the bushel is scarce.
• «A barcella per garba» — wheat that yields a lot; by extension, everything that is profitable (Mall.).
• «Caure quarteres de blat» — rain in time for sowing.

History

• 1285: «LX quarteres de forment» of the bishop of Mallorca (BSAL, DCVB).
• 1285: «cent quarteres e II barceles d'ordi» (DCVB).
• 1396: "mitja cortera de aram... mitja cortera de fust" in Sóller (Hist. Sóller, DCVB).
• 1552: "the forment cutter in Mallorca was worth 50 sous and it was not trobava" (BSAL, DCVB): year of hunger.
• 19th century: the decimal metric system replaces these measurements by law; In the countryside they remain in use for a long time (Majorcan chronology, to be verified).

On veure'n

• Museum of Mallorca, ethnological section (Wall) : preserves tools from the field (specific pieces, to be verified).
• Estates and houses of possessió with granary (see house of possessió ).

Why is it design

• Modular system: each piece is an exact multiple of the smallest (1 quartera = 6 barcelles = 36 almuds). A system of six, not ten.
• Object = unit: the measurement is not an abstract number; It is a container that is touched.
• Measurement of territory: the same word measures grain and land. The field is drawn with the seed.

For the project

• Series of objects or graphics "from the bushel to the quartera": proportions 1:6:36 as a grid.
• The proverbs ("set aumuds no fan barcella") serve as exposition texts.

Sources

• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=quartera
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=barcella
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=almud

Working text from the Disseny Indígena knowledge base, machine-translated from Spanish.

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