UZZANO. See Della Decima.
VARTHEMA'S Travels. By Jones and Badger. Hak. Soc., 1863.
VIGNE, G.T. Travels in Kashmir, &c. London, 1842.
VIN. BELL., VINC. BELLOV. Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum Historiale,
Speculum Naturale, &c.
VISDELOU. Supplement to D'Herbelot. 1780.
WILLIAMS'S Middle Kingdom. 3rd. Ed. New York and London, 1857.
WILLIAMSON, Rev. A. Journeys in N. China, &c. London, 1870.
WEBER'S Metrical Romances of the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centuries
Edinburgh, 1810.
WITSEN. Noord en Oost Tartaryen. 2nd Ed. Amsterdam, 1785.
APPENDIX K. - Values of certain Moneys, Weights, and Measures, occurring in
this Book.
FRENCH MONEY.
The LIVRE TOURNOIS of the period may be taken, on the mean of five
valuations cited in a footnote at p. 87 of vol. i., as equal in modern
silver value to ... 18.04 francs.
Say English money ... 14s. 3.8d.
The LIVRE PARISIS was worth one-fourth more than the Tournois,[1]
and therefore equivalent in silver value to ... 22.55 francs.
Say English money ... 17s. 10.8d.
(Gold being then to silver in relative value about 12:1 instead of about
15:1 as now, one-fourth has to be added to the values based on silver in
equations with the gold coin of the period, and one-fifth to be deducted
in values based on gold value. By oversight, in vol. i. p. 87, I took 16:1
as the present gold value, and so exaggerated the value of the livre
Tournois as compared with gold.)
M. Natalis de Wailly, in his recent fine edition of Joinville, determines
the valuation of these livres, in the reign of St. Lewis, by taking
a mean between a value calculated on the present value of silver, and a
value calculated on the present value of gold,[2] and his result is:
LIVRE TOURNOIS = 20.26 francs.
LIVRE PARISIS = 25.33 "
Though there is something arbitrary in this mode of valuation, it is,
perhaps, on the whole the best; and its result is extremedy handy for the
memory (as somebody has pointed out) for we thus have
One LIVRE TOURNOIS = One Napoleon.
" " PARISIS = One Sovereign.
VENETIAN MONEY.
The MARK of Silver all over Europe may be taken fairly at 2l. 4s. of
our money in modern value; the Venetian mark being a fraction more, and the
marks of England, Germany and France fractions less.[3]
The Venice GOLD DUCAT or ZECCHIN, first coined in accordance with a Law of
31st October 1283, was, in our gold value, worth ... 11.82 francs.[4]
or English ... 9s. 4.284d.
The Zecchin when first coined was fixed as equivalent to 18 grossi, and
on this calculation the GROSSO should be a little less than 5d.
sterling.[5] But from what follows it looks as if there must have been
another grosso, perhaps only of account, which was only 3/4 of the
former, therefore equivalent to 3-3/4d. only. This would be a clue to
difficulties which I do not find dealt with by anybody in a precise or
thorough manner; but I can find no evidence for it.
