Seven Palm Musket

[Matchlock]

Hi there,

I found these line drawings on entering palm measure at google.

It his, as has been suggested, most probably a length measure taken from a part of the human body. My palm, e.g., measures 9 cm in width.

As Willocks' The Religion is settled in 1565, the mentioning of seven-palm and nine-palm muskets should, in my opinion, refer to the overall length of the guns. Let me just point out as an aside that, as I have mentioned previously, the term musket seems to have arisen in mid-16th century. Most of the guns of that period which we have come to call (h)arquebuses nowadays had an average overall length of ca. 70-90 cm. A significant terminological difference between the shorter and the longer guns did not exist yet.

So, as a conclusion, the idea is quite convincing to me that seven to nine palm guns - no matter whether they were called arquebuses or muskets - would have been about 80 cm long.

Best wishes,
Michael