Flavius Iosephus - gladius on the left -

[marcos]

Marcos,
The English term for the open hand i.e. from thumb tip to tip of the little finger with the hand splayed, is a "span." The breadth of the closed hand is a "palm" or a "hand." All are obsolete, with the "hand" still used only to describe the height of a horse at the shoulder.

"span" , I have to imagine that ! In italian is "spanna"; too much easy