Claudius Ptolemy (Ptolemaios, Klaudios)

Ptolemy, Claudius; Ptolemaios, Klaudios, OK. 100 OK. 147 (178?) Gg. n. e., Greek astronomer, mathematician, geographer. One of the most eminent scholars of antiquity. He lived in Alexandria. - The most loud glory he brought astronomical works, . among them primarily mathematical system (Mathematike syntaksis) in 13 books, . later called the Great System (Megale syntaksis), . where in the Arabic language by adding the article al was called Almagest, . under which the product P,
. known everywhere. In Almagest R., . using the work of their predecessors (mainly, . Hipparchus of Nicaea and Apollonius of Perga), . He not only gathered together all the astronomical knowledge of antiquity, . which has enriched her own observations (produced in 127-141 years.), . but gave the first systematic exposition of the mathematical astronomy,
. Books I and II represent the geocentric system, kn. IV-VI contain the lunar theory, book. VII-VIII talk about the stars, the rest of the book devoted to the theory of planetary motion. This is the greatest work of P. commented Papp, Theon, Hypatia, Proclus. His early translated into Arabic (the first translation is dated VIII / IX cc.), In this version it came to medieval Europe, where - several times translated into Latin - has become a major astronomical writing until the time of Copernicus.

On the theory of the planets P. also wrote in the later work Hypotheses planets (Hypotheseis ton planomenon), partially preserved in Arabic translation. Noteworthy is also the so-called Canopus inscription inscription P. in 147-148 years. on a stone slab in the Canopy, which shows the location of the planets and other data relating to their. No less popular than the Almagest has long been a product of astrological P. Four Books (Tetrabiblos), organize all the available data and theories about the influence of planets and stars on human life and various events taking place on Earth. He commented on Porphyry and Proclus, many times translated, including in modern European languages. Of the other works of P. most important influences on his work from the field of music theory, optics, and geography. Music, he devoted a work Harmonica (Harmonika), which is one of the main sources of studying the history of Greek music. As Almagest with the Four Books, it belonged to the most famous works of P. To him, wrote a comment Porphyry, it was used Boethius, Macrobius, etc.. It was translated into Arabic and Latin. Composing Optics (Optike pragmateia) in 5 books, partly preserved in the Latin translation of the Arabic narration, tells about the vision and visual deceptions, as well as the laws of reflection and refraction of light in water. P. results are the findings of Archimedes and Heron, but the question of the refraction of light in greater decides on a new

. In his main work geographically Geography (Geographike hyphegesis) in 8 books he considers this discipline as the science of Earth observation images with drawings (as the closest to the original, you can transfer the title of Labor), . which is based on astronomy and mathematics,
. To facilitate mapping, P. compiled tables of geographical latitudes and longitudes of about 8100 the most famous places, mountains and rivers. More than his predecessors, he described Britain and the countries south of the Baltic. He also mentioned about the current Polish territory, in particular Kalish. This work was the highest achievement of ancient geography, summarizing the results of its. P. relied on the study of Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, Posidonius, Strabo, and especially at Marina Tire (Greek geographer I / II cc. n. e.) Geographical Treatise P. For 14 centuries, was not only a basic textbook on geography, but the source of mapping the new time. P. wrote on scientific koine, simple and understandable language.