number
Forty
A round count of days, years, and wilderness in biblical and later speech. Not a laboratory measurement and not a universal trial-number.
Norse tradition
Forty appears in Valhalla.
Snorri’s Gylfaginning finishes Valhalla’s door count as five hundred and forty. A named forty in that hall tally, not forty as a biblical wilderness dump alone and not five-hundred as the leading hundreds alone.
from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220
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Forty is used in Dog Star.
In Culpeper’s English Physician, a vessel is set in the sun forty days, twenty before and after the rising of the dog-star — forty days brackets that dog-star rising for the steep.
from Nicholas Culpeper · The English Physician, 1652 (and later PD editions)
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Forty is used in Fifty.
In Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, from forty to fifty feet one divides the length by three and one half for the alae — forty-to-fifty is the length band of that alae measure.
from Vitruvius; Morris Hicky Morgan (translation) · De Architectura, 1st century BCE; Morgan English 1914
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Forty is used in Sixty.
In Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, when the atrium is from forty to sixty feet, the width is divided into five parts for the tablinum share — forty-to-sixty is that atrium band.
from Vitruvius; Morris Hicky Morgan (translation) · De Architectura, 1st century BCE; Morgan English 1914
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Forty is used in Fifth.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, pure tin is mixed with a fifth part of lead and cast into rods — the fifth-part lead share sets that tin alloy.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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Forty is used in Consecration.
In the Jewish Encyclopedia, the ritual bath for consecration must contain at least forty seah of water — forty seah set that consecration-bath measure.
from Isidore Singer et al. · The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1901–1906
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Two hundred is used in Forty.
In Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, water is conducted with shafts built at every two hundred and forty feet — two-hundred-and-forty is the spacing module of those conduit shafts.
from Vitruvius; Morris Hicky Morgan (translation) · De Architectura, 1st century BCE; Morgan English 1914
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Thirty is used in Forty.
In Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, a column of from thirty to forty feet should be divided at the bottom into seven and a half parts — thirty-to-forty is the height band that sets that shaft division.
from Vitruvius; Morris Hicky Morgan (translation) · De Architectura, 1st century BCE; Morgan English 1914
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Fifteen is used in Forty.
In Culpeper’s English Physician, fifteen drams of maiden-hair sit with forty drams of lettuce seed in the same compound — fifteen and forty are paired dram weights of that mix.
from Nicholas Culpeper · The English Physician, 1652 (and later PD editions)
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Three hundred is used in Forty.
In Agricola’s De Re Metallica, multiplying sides yields three hundred and forty-three square fathoms — three-hundred-forty-three totals that area product.
from Georgius Agricola; Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover (translation) · De Re Metallica, 1556 Latin; Hoover English 1912
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Sixteen is used in Forty.
In Agricola’s De Re Metallica, sixteen beams are erected each forty feet long when a framed structure is made — sixteen forty-foot beams set that frame.
from Georgius Agricola; Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover (translation) · De Re Metallica, 1556 Latin; Hoover English 1912
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Rectangle is used in Forty.
In Agricola’s De Re Metallica, a rectangle meer illustration yields forty-nine square fathoms when a side is squared — forty-nine is the square-fathom product of that rectangle.
from Georgius Agricola; Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover (translation) · De Re Metallica, 1556 Latin; Hoover English 1912
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sources
- Gylfaginning · Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning, in the Prose Edda.
- The English Physician · Nicholas Culpeper
Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician (Complete Herbal).
- De Architectura · Vitruvius; Morris Hicky Morgan (translation)
Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture, trans. Morris Hicky Morgan (1914).
- On Divers Arts · Theophilus Presbyter
Theophilus, On Divers Arts (De diversis artibus / Schedula diversarum artium).
- The Jewish Encyclopedia · Isidore Singer et al.
Isidore Singer et al., The Jewish Encyclopedia (1901–1906).
- De Re Metallica · Georgius Agricola; Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover (translation)
Georgius Agricola, De Re Metallica, trans. Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover (1912).