Note 649 — Chapter XIV

It is almost impossible now to determine the relative values mentioned in records so old as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Moreover, research only shows that there was the greatest confusion both as to the names and as to the values of the weights and measures of that period. The Bezant (or Byzant), taking its name unquestionably from the City of Byzantium, was a common term for gold money in Western Europe from the tenth to the fourteenth century. Thus Dunstan bought Hendon of King Edgar for two hundred Byzants (Camden’s “Remains concerning Britain”), and Wyclif, in his translation of the Bible, uses “besauntis” for the ten pieces of money in the parable. These Byzants were not always of the same weight or purity, but it is generally believed that, in the time of Constantine, seventy-two were coined to the pound, and that therefore they were worth about the same as the ducat (with which they are often confounded), viz., 9s. (Savile Script. Dec. post Bedam, fol. 76, 6. Ducange Gloss. in voce.) Those of Alex. Comnenus, A.D. 1081-1118, weigh about seventy grains English.