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"Panis libra una propensa sufficiat in die, siue una sit refectio siue
prandii et cenae. . . . Quod si labor forte factus fuerit maior, in arbitrio et
potestate abbatis erit, si expediat, aliquid augere." (Benedicti regula,
chap. 39, ed. Hanslik, 1960, 99-100; ed. McCann, 1952, 94-96; ed.
Steidle, 1952, 234-36).

The qualifying adjective propensa of panis libra una requires comment.
Delatte, 1913, 309 and McCann, 1952, 95 translate "a good pound of
weight;" Steidle, 1952, 234, more convincingly "a well weighed pound
of bread." Hildemar who is closer by eleven hundred years to the source
explains the adjective as follows: Propensa, i.e., praeponderata, i.e.,
mensurata (Expositio Hildemari, ed. Mittermüller, 1880, 437, commentary
to chapter 39 of the Rule). What St. Benedict wished to convey
accordingly—obviously in the interest of equity—would be that the
quantity of dough that went into the making of a loaf of bread should be
measured on the scales rather than left to the guess of the baker.

Whether this was done in the dough stage or after baking will have to
remain a moot question. At Monte Cassino, during the abbacy of Theodomar
(for source see the following note) bread was baked in four-pound
loaves, and accordingly would have to be cut into serviceable
pieces after baking. This could even have been done in the refectory
before the bread was distributed and may indeed have been the simplest
and most logical way of doing it, since even the one-pound loaves would
have to have been cut into smaller portions on the days when several
meals were served, and the bread was eaten in successive stages.

Theodomari epistula ad Karolum, chap. 4, ed. Hallinger and Wegener,
Corp. con. mon., I, 1963, 162-163; "Direximus quoque pondo quattuor
librarum, ad cuius aequalitatem ponderis panis debeat fieri, qui in quaternas
quadras singularum librarum iuxta sacrae textum regule possit diuidi.
Quod pondus, sicut ab ipso padre est institutum, in hoc est loco repertum."

I am puzzled by Semmler's interpreting this difficult passage to mean
that in Monte Cassino, the daily ration of bread, at the time of Abbot
Theodomar, was four pounds per monk (Semmler, 1958, 278). Cf.
the remark of Jacques Winandy on this subject: "Comme il apparait a
simple lecture, le pain de quatre livres devrait être divisé en quatre
parts égales." (Winandy, 1938, 281).

On the difference between the Roman and Carolingian pound see
Guérard, I, 1844, 125ff and 192.

Synodae secundae decr. auth., chap. 22, ed. Semmler, Corp. cons.
mon., I, 1963, 478: Ut libra panis triginta solidis per duodecim denarios
ponderetur.

Consuetudines Corbeienses, chap. 2, ed. Semmler, Corp. con. mon., I,
1963, 372, and translation III, 105.

Ekkehart, in his Benedictiones ad mensas, makes reference to a wide
variety of bread: to "cakes" (torta), "moon-shaped bread" (panem
lunatem), "salted bread" (panem cum sale mixtum), "bread leavened with
egg" (panem per oua leuatum) and "bread leavened with dredge" (panem
de fece leuatum), "bread made of `spelt' " (de spelta), "rye" (triticeum
panem), "wheat" (panem sigalinum), "barley" (ordea panis), "oat"
(panis avena), "fresh bread" and "old bread" (panis noviter cocti and
recens coctus panis), "warm bread" and "cold bread" (calidi panes and
gelidus panis), and lastly, the "morsels and crumbs" (fragmina panum)
left over from each meal. (Benedictiones ad mensas, lines 6-20. See Liber
benedictionum Ekkeharts IV, ed. Egli, 1909, 281-84 and Schulz, 1941.

Consuetudines Corbeienses, chap. 3, ed. cit., 375ff and III, 106.

Ibid., 377, and III, 107.