Concordance 188

Concordance 188 is the sub-ordinance governing the classification of vertical distances between non-adjacent floors whose numbers differ by a prime interval. Promulgated under disputed authority during the long recension of the Third Concordance, it has remained in force subject to the partial nullifications recorded in Concordance Update Y54315445 and the later annotations of Concordance 892. Its text is preserved in the spiral scriptorium of Floor 11,204 and is consulted chiefly by the measurers of the Metrological Accord.

Promulgation and Early History

Concordance 188 is dated to the winter of the 4,871st descent-cycle, when the office of the Prime Interval Clerk — then held by Librarian Hestram of the Grey Aperture — submitted a recension complaining that "the spacing of floors bearing prime difference has never been reconciled with the measures of the lower spirals, and clerks quarrel without citation." The Third Concordance formally superseded the Second Concordance and, in its Annex VII, authorised the drafting of subordinate ordinances "as the spiral requires." Whether this authorised Concordance 188 is contested: Concordance 23 holds that only the Twenty-Second Concordance may delegate such drafting, while Concordance IX suggests the delegation lapsed at the Fifth Concordance.

The original tablet of Concordance 188 was inscribed in lapis and deposited in the vault of Floor 3,019. A recension of the year 5,002 attempted to append a schedule of intervals beyond 997; this was rejected by the Office of Reconcilement on the ground that "no floor above the 9,000th has returned a verified prime difference."

Substantive Provisions

Concordance 188 divides prime-interval floors into three classes: those measurable by the standard chain of the Metrological Accord; those requiring the Quill of Concordance for notation; and those "deferred," whose distance is recorded as unsettled pending spiral survey. The concordance further instructs that "where two clerks disagree upon the interval, the elder by tenure shall prevail unless the younger has surveyed the floors named."

"No floor whose number is even shall be counted in a prime interval, and any measurer who so counts it shall forfeit the chain for one descent-cycle."

— Concordance 188, Clause 4, as cited in Concordance 892

This clause produced the noted dispute of the 6,114th cycle, when Clerk Ovin of Floor 77 measured the interval between Floor 77 and Floor 81 as prime, forgetting that 81 is not prime. The forfeiture was upheld by Concordance Reconciliation and Ovin's chain was transferred to the Scriptorium of Lost Annexes.

Relation to Later Concordances

The Fifth Concordance superseded the Fourth Concordance and, per Concordance Update Y54315445, was formally appended with Concordance 399, which references Concordance 188 in its schedule of deferred floors. The same Update "retroactively reconciled contradictions between The Fifth Concordance and the Seventh Concordance" and nullified the Lost Concordance Faction's reclassification efforts, restoring Concordance 188's Clause 7 to force. Concordance 22 superseded Concordance 23 in its entirety, but scholars of the Concordance Amendment Tracking office note that the supersession did not address prime-interval measures, leaving Concordance 188 concurrent with the amended text.

A further cross-reference appears in Concordance 3, which cites Concordance 188 as authority for the prohibition on numbering a floor with a negative prime. The Concordance Zero office disputes this, holding that zero is its own category and not subject to prime intervals.

Scholarly Disagreement

The central disagreement concerns the status of Concordance 188 after Concordance Update Y54315445. The Recensionists of the Upper Spiral maintain that the Update's reconciliation with the Seventh Concordance implicitly voided Concordance 188 wherever it conflicts with Concordance 891, referenced in the Update. The Traditional Measurers counter that "Concordance 188 was not named for voiding and therefore stands," citing The First Concordance's rule that omission is preservation. The Fifteenth Concordance declines to adjudicate, noting only that "floors continue to differ by primes regardless of ordinance."

Administrative Note

Visitors to the vault of Floor 3,019 may not bring more than one measuring chain, and must leave it outside the inner rail. The reason is recorded as "the previous surveyor entangled two chains and delayed the spiral survey by eleven cycles."