Ptolemy in Perspective

This book traces reactions to Ptolemy from his own times to ours. It shows the complex processes by which an ancient scientist and his work gained and subsequently lost an overreaching reputation and authority.

Ptolemy was the most important physical scientist of the Roman Empire, and for a millennium and a half his writings on astronomy, astrology, and geography were models for imitation, resources for new work, and targets of criticism. Ptolemy in Perspective traces reactions to Ptolemy from his own times to ours. The nine studies show the complex processes by which an ancient scientist and his work gained and subsequently lost an overreaching reputation and authority.

First comprehensive study of the "afterlife" of one of antiquity's greatest scientists Shows how the study of the past has persistently intertwined with current science Important new insights from recently discovered or little-studied documents

Contenu
An Unpublished Astronomical Papyrus Contemporary with Ptolemy.- Ancient Rejection and Adoption of Ptolemy's Frame of Reference for Longitudes.- Ptolemy's Doctrine of the Terms and Its Reception.- The Tradition of Texts and Maps in Ptolemy's Geography.- Islamic Reactions to Ptolemy's Imprecisions.- The Use and Abuse of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe: Two Case Studies (Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Filippo Fantoni).- Tycho, Longomontanus, and Kepler on Ptolemy's Solar Observations and Theory, Precession of the Equinoxes, and Obliquity of the Ecliptic.- Dunthorne, Mayer, and Lalande on the Secular Acceleration of the Moon.