The Transportation of the Vatican Obelisk

AND THE LAST.

On the face a. c., at points p. and q., and terminates at corners e. and g. Know for a certain rule that these hanging thicknesses are half of their pillar; therefore, by taking two of them, one whole pillar will be formed by turning the hanging sides one against the other. The width of this pillar will be eight palmi a unit of measurement roughly equivalent to 8.8 inches or 22.3 cm and one-twelfth, and two palmi thick. The area or surface of the square of the base of this will be sixteen palmi and one-sixth, which, multiplied by the height, which is one hundred seven and a half palmi, makes one thousand seven hundred thirty-seven and eleven-twelfths cubic palmi. And because these thicknesses are four, they come to make two similar pillars, which together are three thousand seven hundred seventy-five and five-sixths palmi.

There remain the four small squares that are in the four corners between the larger square and the smaller one: namely, the small square a. i. p. e., whose hanging sides a. i. and a. p., together with the diagonal line that starts from point a., go to terminate at point e., the corner of the square above. At this point falls the perpendicular line communicating with that of the corner of the central pillar, and so do the others. The small square k. f. b. l. does the same, whose hanging sides k. b. and b. l. with its diagonal line, which begins from corner b., terminate at point f. And the small square h. m. n. d., whose hanging sides m. d. and d. n. with the diagonal line that starts from point d., terminate at point h. And the last small square q. c. and c. o., whose hanging sides o. c. and c. q. with the diagonal that starts from point c., terminate at point g. They form a square pyramid, the base of which is four palmi per face, and the area comes to be sixteen palmi. Multiplying, therefore, sixteen by the one hundred seven and a half height, comes to one thousand seven hundred twenty cubic palmi. And because every pyramid is the third part of its column, the third part of the aforementioned one thousand seven hundred twenty palmi is five hundred seventy-three and one-third palmi.

The point remains, which at the base is eight palmi and one-twelfth per face. The area of which comes to be (as was said above) 65 and 49/144 palmi. It is six palmi high, which, multiplied by the height and taking the third part, is one hundred thirty and forty-nine seventy-seconds cubic palmi. And to better represent before your eyes all the aforementioned measurements, I will register them here below.

So that the whole body of the Spire without the point is, as is seen above, eleven thousand seventy-three and seventy-one two-hundred-eighty-eighths palmi.
Adding to it the point, which is | 130 49/72 palmi |
They make all together cubic palmi | 11203 89/96 palmi |

These are almost eleven thousand two hundred four palmi, less about one-sixteenth of a palmi. According to the custom of Rome, at 30 cubic palmi per carrettata cartload, this is three hundred seventy-three and about 14 palmi. And calculating all the aforementioned palmi at the rate of eighty-six pounds per palmi according to the experiment conducted, as I said above, I found that said Spire came to weigh nine hundred sixty-three thousand five hundred thirty-seven and thirty-five forty-eighths pounds, which is exactly its weight. And even if in the first drawing that came out in print regarding this business, before it was raised or moved, it was said to be eleven thousand one hundred eighteen cubic palmi, the cause is that at that beginning, we did not use that diligence...