The Syriac Chronicle

Lorsbach, when the Syriac specimen of the Abulpharagian narrative edited by the celebrated Bruns had provided an occasion for discussion, in his Repertory of Biblical and Oriental Literature, Part XVII, strove to prove at length that a litra was larger than two drachmae, and at the same time admitted that, although a weight of a hundred pounds seems even to him greater than is just, and that it should be reduced if it were possible, yet, if one or the other must be chosen, he would prefer a hundred pounds to two hundred drachmae. Gregory Bar-Hebraeus, if several passages of his Chronicle are compared with one another, resolves the matter brilliantly, and in such a way that both opinions are satisfied. The word ܠܝܛܪܐ litra often occurs in the Chronicle, but I pass over all other passages, even though they pertain to this question, so that I may allege only those that bring the most light. On page 559, from line 7, of his Chronicle, Abulpharagius has this:

"And there was a great famine. And one hundred minae of wheat, which is a small donkey's load, were sold for forty zuzim for one ܢܡܘܣܐ measure/standard of one hundred litrae."

There existed such a dearth of grain that one hundred minae of wheat, that is, a small donkey's load, were sold for forty denarii:

We can make very good use of these words to define the weight of a litra. First, I assume that a donkey's load weighs 160 Nuremberg civil pounds; I can place this number as a foundation all the more easily, since this animal, which is frequently used in our regions for transporting grain to mills, is able to carry 200 pounds of this kind, or even more. However, from these 160 pounds I subtract 60, so that I may satisfy the words of Bar-Hebraeus, who says that 100 minae were a small donkey's load. Therefore, 100 minae are equal to 100 Nuremberg pounds. The Nuremberg pound is to the medical or Venetian pound of the Germans as 10581 is to 7452, and therefore 100 Nuremberg pounds make, neglecting fractions, 142 medical pounds.