 The world map after Ptolemy's first projection from a Greek manuscript edition of the Geography (Burney MS 111, f.105v-106r) | |
| Author | Ptolemy |
|---|---|
| Original title | Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις |
| Language | Ancient Greek |
| Genre | Geography |
Publication date | c. 150s A.D. |
| Media type | Manuscript |
| Preceded by | Almagest |
| Followed by | Table of Noteworthy Cities |
TheGeography (Ancient Greek:Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις,Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis,lit. "Geographical Guidance"), also known by itsLatin names as theGeographia and theCosmographia, is agazetteer, anatlas, and a treatise oncartography, compiling the geographical knowledge of the 2nd-centuryRoman Empire. Originally written byClaudius Ptolemy inGreek atAlexandria around 150 AD, the work was a revision of a now-lost atlas byMarinus of Tyre using additional Roman andPersian gazetteers and new principles.[1]
Its translation intoArabic byal-Khwarismi in the 9th century was highly influential on thegeographical knowledge and cartographic traditions of the Islamic world. Alongside the works of Islamic scholars—and the commentary containing revised and more accurate data byAlfraganus—Ptolemy's work was subsequently highly influential onMedieval andRenaissance Europe.
Versions of Ptolemy's work in antiquity were probably properatlases with attached maps, although some scholars believe that the references to maps in the text were later additions.
NoGreek manuscript of theGeography survives from earlier than the 13th century.[2] However fragmentarypapyri of later somewhat derivative works such as theTable of Noteworthy Cities have been found with the earliest,Rylands LibraryGP 522, dating to the early 3rd century.[3][4] A letter written by theByzantinemonkMaximus Planudes records that he searched for one forChora Monastery in the summer of 1295;[5] one of the earliest surviving texts may have been one of those he then assembled.[6][7] In Europe, maps were sometimes redrawn using the coordinates provided by the text,[8] as Planudes was forced to do.[5] Later scribes and publishers could then copy these new maps, asAthanasius did for theemperorAndronicus II Palaeologus.[5] The three earliest surviving texts with maps are those fromConstantinople (Istanbul) based on Planudes's work.[a]
The firstLatin translation of these texts was made in 1406 or 1407 byJacobus Angelus inFlorence,Italy, under the nameGeographia Claudii Ptolemaei.[15] It is not thought that his edition had maps,[16] althoughManuel Chrysoloras had givenPalla Strozzi a Greek copy of Planudes's maps in Florence in 1397.[17]
| Repository and Collection Number | Siglum[18] | Date | Maps | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vatican Library,Vat. Gr. 191[19] (f.128v-169v) | X | 12th-13th century | No extant maps | |
| Copenhagen University Library, Fragmentum Fabricianum Graecum 23[19] | F | 13th century | Fragmentary; originally world and 26 regional | |
| Vatican Library, Urbinas Graecus 82[19][20][21] | U | 13th century | World and 26 regional |  |
| Istanbul Sultan's Library, Seragliensis 57[19] | K | 13th century | World and 26 regional (poorly preserved) |  |
| Vatican Library, Vat. Gr. 177[19] | V | 13th century | No extant maps | |
| Laurentian Library, Plut. 28.49[19] | O[22] | 14th century | Originally world, 1 Europe, 2 Asia, 1 Africa, 63 regional (65 maps extant) | |
| Bibliothèque nationale de France, Gr. Supp. 119[19] | C | 14th century | No extant maps | |
| Vatican Library, Vat. Gr. 178[19] | W | 14th century | No extant maps | |
| British Library, Burney Gr. 111[19] | T | 14th-15th century | Maps derived from Florence, Pluto 28.49 | |
| Bodleian Library, 3376 (46)-Qu. Catal. i (Greek), Cod. Seld. 41[19] | N | 15th century | No extant maps | |
| Vatican Library, Pal. Gr. 388[19] | 15th century | World and 63 regional No extant maps | ||
| Laurentian Library, Pluto 28.9 (and related manuscript 28.38)[19] | 15th century | No extant maps | ||
| Biblioteca Marciana, Gr. 516[19] | R | 15th century | Originally world and 26 regional (world map, 2 maps, and 2 half maps missing) | |
| Vatican Library, Pal. Gr. 314[19] | Z | 15th century | No extant maps; written by Michael Apostolios in Crete | |
| British Library, Harley MS 3686 | 15th century |  | ||
| Huntington Library, Wilton Codex[23] | 15th century | One world, ten of Europe, four of Africa, and twelve of Asia, elegantly coloured and illuminated with burnished gold. |
Berggren & Jones (2000) place these manuscripts into astemma whereby U, K, F and N are connected with the activities ofMaximos Planudes (c.1255-1305). From a sister manuscript to UKFN descends R, V, W & C, however the maps were either copied defectively or not at all. "Of the greatest importance for the text of the Geography" they state is manuscript X (Vat.Gr.191); "because it is the only copy that is uninfluenced by theByzantine revision." e.g. the 13th-14th century corrections of Planudes, possibly associated with recreating the maps.[18]
Regarding the maps, they conclude that it was unlikely that extant maps survived from which the above stemma descends, even if maps existed in antiquity:
"The transmission ofPtolemy's text certainly passed through a stage when the manuscripts were too small to contain the maps. Planudes and his assistants therefore probably had no pictorial models, and the success of their enterprise is proof that Ptolemy succeeded in his attempt to encode the map in words and numbers. The copies of the maps in later manuscripts and printed editions of the Geography were reproduced from Planudes' reconstructions."[24]
Mittenhuber (2010) further divides the stemma into two recensions of the original c.AD 150 lost work:Ξ andΩ (c.3rd/4th cent., lost).[22] Recension Ω contains most of the extant manuscripts and is subdivided into a further two groups:Δ andΠ. Group Δ contains parchment manuscripts from the end of the thirteenth century, which are the earliest extant manuscripts of the Geography; these are U, K & F. Recension, Ξ, is represented by one codex only, X. Mittenhuber agrees with Berggren & Jones, stating that "The so-called Codex X is of particular significance, because it contains many local names and coordinates that differ from the other manuscripts ... which cannot be explained by mere errors in the tradition.".Although no manuscripts survive from earlier than the late 13th century; there are references to the existence of ancientcodicies in late antiquity. One such example is in an epistle byCassiodorus (c.560 A.D.):
“Tum, si vos notitiae nobilis cura inflammaverit, habetisPtolemaei codicem, qui sic omnia loca evidenter expressit, ut eum cunctarum regionum paene incolam fuisse iudicetis. Eoque fit, ut uno loco positi, sicut monachos decet, animo percurratis, quod aliquorum peregrinatio plurimo labore collegit.”(Institutiones 1, 25)[22].
The existence of ancient recensions that differ fundamentally to the surviving manuscript tradition can be seen in the epitomes ofMarkianos byStephanus:
"Καὶ ἄλλοι οὕτως διὰ του πΠρετανίδες νῆσοι, ὡςΜαρκιανὸς καὶΠτολεμαῖος."[25][26]
The tradition preserved within the stemma of surviving (13th-14th century) manuscripts by Stückelberger & Grasshoff only preserves "Β" and not "Π" recentions of "Βρεττανικήσ".[27]
TheGeography consists of three sections, divided among 8 books. Book I is a treatise oncartography andchorography, describing the methods used to assemble and arrange Ptolemy's data. From Book II through the beginning of Book VII, a gazetteer provides longitude and latitude values for theworld known to theancient Romans (the "ecumene"). The rest of Book VII provides details on three projections to be used for the construction of a map of the world, varying in complexity and fidelity. Book VIII constitutes anatlas of regional maps. The maps include a recapitulation of some of the values given earlier in the work, which were intended to be used as captions to clarify the map's contents and maintain their accuracy during copying. Book 8 formed the basis for theTable of Noteworthy Cities.
Maps based onscientific principles had been made in Europe since the time ofEratosthenes in the 3rd century BC. Ptolemy improved the treatment ofmap projections.[28] He provided instructions on how to create his maps in the first section of the work.
The gazetteer section of Ptolemy's work providedlatitude andlongitudecoordinates for all the places and geographical features in the work. Latitude was expressed indegrees of arc from theequator, the same system that is used now, though Ptolemy used fractions of a degree rather than minutes of arc.[29] HisPrime Meridian, of0longitude, ran through theFortunate Isles, the westernmost land recorded,[30] at around the position ofEl Hierro in theCanary Islands.[31] The maps spanned 180 degrees of longitude from the Fortunate Isles in theAtlantic toChina.
Ptolemy was aware that Europe knew only about a quarter of the globe.[citation needed]
Ptolemy's work included a single large and less detailed world map and then separate and more detailed regional maps. The first Greek manuscripts compiled afterMaximus Planudes's rediscovery of the text had as many as 64 regional maps.[b] The standard set in Western Europe came to be 26: 10 European maps, 4 African maps, and 12 Asian maps. As early as the 1420s, these canonical maps were complemented by extra-Ptolemaic regional maps depicting, e.g.,Scandinavia.
The Geography is spread over 8 books with the main body of the work (books 2-7) is a list of some 8000toponyms comprising theOikumene of thesecond century AD. Book 1 is written in prose and is Ptolemy's explanation of the project, his method and his sources (mainlyMarinos of Tyre). Book 8 offers descriptions for each of the maps created in books 2-7 and forms the basis of theTable of Noteworthy Cities. Thecritical edition was published by Stückelberger, Mittenhuber and Klöti (2006).[27]
Book 1 is a theoretical treatise by Ptolemy outlining the subject matter, previous work and instructing the reader how to draw a world map using his projection systems. The sections are, to use Ptolemy's original titles:[33]
WesternAtlantic fringes,Gaul,Central Europe and theIberian Peninsula.[34]
| Chapter | Region |
|---|---|
| Prologue | |
| 1 | Britannia:Hibernia |
| 2 | Britannia:Albion |
| 3 | Hispanic Baetica |
| 4 | Hispanic Tarraconensis |
| 5 | Hispanic Lusitania |
| 6 | Aquitanian Gaul |
| 7 | Lugdunensian Gaul |
| 8 | Belgic Gaul |
| 9 | Narbonensian Gaul |
| 10 | Greater Germania |
| 11 | Raetia andVindelica |
| 12 | Noricum |
| 13 | Upper Pannonia |
| 14 | Lower Pannonia |
| 15 | Illyria orLiburnia andDalmatia |
Italy,Greece and the majorMediterranean Islands.[34]
| Chapter | Region |
|---|---|
| 1 | Italy |
| 2 | Corsica |
| 3 | Sardinia |
| 4 | Sicily |
| 5 | Sarmatia |
| 6 | Tauric Peninsula |
| 7 | Iazyges Metanastae |
| 8 | Dacia |
| 9 | UpperMoesia |
| 10 | Lower Moesia |
| 11 | Thracia and thePeloponnesian Peninsula |
| 12 | Macedonia |
| 13 | Epirus |
| 14 | Achaia |
| 15 | Crete |
North Africa fromMorocco toEgypt andEthiopia.[34]
| Chapter | Region |
|---|---|
| 1 | Mauritania Tingitana |
| 2 | Mauritania Caesariensis |
| 3 | Numidia and Africa proper |
| 4 | Cyrenaica |
| 5 | Marmarica, which is properly calledLibya, All ofEgypt, both Lower and Upper |
| 6 | Libya Interior |
| 7 | Ethiopia below Egypt |
| 8 | Ethiopia in the interior below this |
CoveringAnatolia,Asia Minor, theMiddle East andNear East as well asCyprus.[34]
| Chapter | Region |
|---|---|
| 1 | Bithynia and Pontus |
| 2 | Asia |
| 3 | Lycia |
| 4 | Pamphylia |
| 5 | Galatia |
| 6 | Cappadocia |
| 7 | Cilicia |
| 8 | AsiaticSarmatia |
| 9 | Colchis |
| 10 | Iberia |
| 11 | Albania |
| 12 | Greater Armenia |
| 13 | Cyprus |
| 14 | Syria |
| 15 | Palestine |
| 16 | Arabia Petraea |
| 17 | Mesopotamia |
| 18 | Arabia Deserta |
| 19 | Babylonia |
In book 6, Ptolemy covers theNear East,Caucuses andCentral Asia.[35][27]
| Chapter | Region |
|---|---|
| 1 | Assyria |
| 2 | Media |
| 3 | Susiane |
| 4 | Persis |
| 5 | Parthia |
| 6 | Karmania |
| 7 | Eudaimon |
| 8 | Karmianien |
| 9 | Hyrkanien |
| 10 | Margiane |
| 11 | Bactriane |
| 12 | Sogdianer |
| 13 | Saken |
| 14 | Skythia |
| 15 | Skythia |
| 16 | Serike |
| 17 | Areia |
| 18 | Paropanisaden |
| 19 | Drangiana |
| 20 | Archosien |
| 21 | Gedrosien |
India,China, andSri Lanka.[27][18]
| Chapter | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | India before theGanges |
| 2 | India beyond the Ganges |
| 3 | Land ofSinen |
| 4 | Taprobane |
| 5 | Summary caption of the map of theoikoumene |
| 6 | The mapping of a ringed globe with the oikoumene |
| 7 | Caption for the flattening [of the oikoumene] |
Descriptions of the maps created by the previous sections with details of day length atsolstice, etc. The gazetter oftoponyms is thought to have formed the basis for theTable of Noteworthy Cities.[27]
| Chapter | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | On the basis for dividing the oikoumene into the [regional] maps |
| 2 | Which things are appropriate to include in the caption for each map |
| 3 | Europe Map 1 |
| 4 | Europe Map 2 |
| 5 | Europe Map 3 |
| 6 | Europe Map 4 |
| 7 | Europe Map 5 |
| 8 | Europe Map 6 |
| 9 | Europe Map 7 |
| 10 | Europe Map 8 |
| 11 | Europe Map 9 |
| 12 | Europe Map 10 |
| 13 | Africa Map 1 |
| 14 | Africa Map 2 |
| 15 | Africa Map 3 |
| 16 | Africa Map 4 |
| 17 | Asia Map 1 |
| 18 | Asia Map 2 |
| 19 | Asia Map 3 |
| 20 | Asia Map 4 |
| 21 | Asia Map 5 |
| 22 | Asia Map 6 |
| 23 | Asia Map 7 |
| 24 | Asia Map 8 |
| 25 | Asia Map 9 |
| 26 | Asia Map 10 |
| 27 | Asia Map 11 |
| 28 | Asia Map 12 |
| 29 | Directory of the lands of the oikoumene |
| 30 | List of length and width of individual maps |
_(cropped).jpg)
.jpeg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
_(cropped).jpg)
.jpg)
.jpeg)
._1579.jpg)
.jpeg)
The original treatise byMarinus of Tyre that formed the basis of Ptolemy'sGeography has been completely lost. A world map based on Ptolemy was displayed inAugustodunum (Autun,France) in late Roman times.[36]Pappus, writing atAlexandria in the 4th century, produced acommentary on Ptolemy'sGeography and used it as the basis of his (now lost)Chorography of the Ecumene.[37] Later imperial writers and mathematicians, however, seem to have restricted themselves to commenting on Ptolemy's text, rather than improving upon it; surviving records actually show decreasing fidelity to real position.[37] Nevertheless, Byzantine scholars continued these geographical traditions throughout the Medieval period.[38]
Whereas previous Greco-Roman geographers such asStrabo andPliny the Elder demonstrated a reluctance to rely on the contemporary accounts of sailors and merchants who plied distant areas of theIndian Ocean, Marinus and Ptolemy betray a much greater receptiveness to incorporating information received from them.[39] For instance, Grant Parker argues that it would be highly implausible for them to have constructed theBay of Bengal as precisely as they did without the accounts of sailors.[39] When it comes to the account of theGolden Chersonese (i.e.Malay Peninsula) and theMagnus Sinus (i.e.Gulf of Thailand andSouth China Sea), Marinus and Ptolemy relied on the testimony of a Greek sailor named Alexandros, who claimed to have visited a far eastern site called "Cattigara" (most likelyOc Eo,Vietnam, the site of unearthedAntonine-era Roman goods and not far from the region ofJiaozhi in northern Vietnam whereancient Chinese sources claim severalRoman embassies first landed in the 2nd and 3rd centuries).[40][41][42][43]
Muslim cartographers were using copies of Ptolemy'sAlmagest andGeography by the 9th century.[44] At that time, in the court of thecaliphal-Maʾmūm,al-Khwārazmī compiled hisBook of the Depiction of the Earth (Kitab Surat al-Ard) which mimicked theGeography[45] in providing the coordinates for 545 cities and regional maps of theNile, theIsland of the Jewel, the Sea of Darkness, and theSea of Azov.[45] A 1037 copy of these are the earliest extant maps from Islamic lands.[46] The text clearly states that al-Khwārazmī was working from an earlier map, although this could not have been an exact copy of Ptolemy's work: hisPrime Meridian was 10° east of Ptolemy's, he adds some places, and his latitudes differ.[45]C.A. Nallino suggests that the work was not based on Ptolemy but on a derivative world map,[47] presumably inSyriac orArabic.[45] The coloured map of al-Maʾmūm constructed by a team including al-Khwārazmī was described by thePersian encyclopædistal-Masʿūdī around 956 as superior to the maps ofMarinus and Ptolemy,[48] probably indicating that it was built along similar mathematical principles.[49] It included 4530 cities and over 200 mountains.
Despite beginning to compile numerous gazetteers of places and coordinates indebted to Ptolemy,[50] Muslim scholars made almost no direct use of Ptolemy's principles in the maps which have survived.[44] Instead, they followed al-Khwārazmī's modifications and theorthogonal projection advocated by Suhrāb's early 10th-century treatise on theMarvels of the Seven Climes to the End of Habitation. Surviving maps from the medieval period were not done according to mathematical principles. The world map from the 11th-centuryBook of Curiosities is the earliest surviving map of theMuslim orChristian worlds to include ageographic coordinate system but the copyist seems to have not understood its purpose, starting it from the left using twice the intended scale and then (apparently realizing his mistake) giving up halfway through.[51] Its presence does strongly suggest the existence of earlier, now-lost maps which had been mathematically derived in the manner of Ptolemy,[46] al-Khwārazmi, or Suhrāb. There are surviving reports of such maps.[50]
Ptolemy'sGeography was translated fromArabic intoLatin at the court of KingRoger II of Sicily in the 12th century AD.[52] However, no copy of that translation has survived.
The Greek text of theGeography reachedFlorence fromConstantinople in about 1400 and was translated into Latin byJacobus Angelus ofScarperia around 1406.[15] The reception of theGeography in Latin Europe was diverse. In the first half of the 15th century,Florentinehumanists used it mainly as aphilological resource to understand the geography of ancient texts;Venetian cartographers attempted to reconcile Ptolemaic maps withportolan charts and medievalmappaemundi, and French and German scholars with an interest inastrology focused on Ptolemy'scosmographical concepts.[53] Over the second half of the century, the prestige of theGeography grew to become the necessary framework of any reflection on geographical space.[54]
The first printed edition with maps, published in 1477 inBologna, was also the first printed book with engraved illustrations.[55][56] Many editions followed (more often usingwoodcut in the early days), some following traditional versions of the maps, and others updating them.[55] An edition published atUlm in 1482 was the first one printed north of theAlps. It became a commercial success and was reprinted in 1486.[57] Also in 1482,Francesco Berlinghieri printed the first edition in vernacularItalian. The edition published inStrasbourg in 1513 was a major step in the modernization of theGeography. It preserved the corpus of Ptolemy's text and maps as faithfully as possible to the original while it provided a separate set of 20 more accurate and up-to-date modern maps.[58] A much improved Latin translation of the Greek original was produced byWillibald Pirckheimer for the 1525 Strasbourg edition, and the first printed edition directly in Greek was authored byErasmus of Rotterdam inBasel in 1533.
Ptolemy had mapped the whole world from theFortunatae Insulae (Cape Verde[59] orCanary Islands) eastward to the eastern shore of theMagnus Sinus. This known portion of the world was comprised within 180 degrees. In his extreme east Ptolemy placedSerica (the Land of Silk), theSinarum Situs (the Port of theSinae), and theemporium ofCattigara. On the 1489 map of the world by Henricus Martellus, which was based on Ptolemy's work, Asia terminated in its southeastern point in a cape, the Cape of Cattigara. Cattigara was understood by Ptolemy to be a port on theSinus Magnus, or Great Gulf, the actual Gulf of Thailand, at eight and a half degrees north of the Equator, on the coast of Cambodia, which is where he located it in hisCanon of Famous Cities. It was the easternmost port reached by shipping trading from the Graeco-Roman world to the lands of the Far East.[60]In Ptolemy's later and better-knownGeography, a scribal error was made and Cattigara was located at eight and a half degrees South of the Equator. On Ptolemaic maps, such as that of Martellus,Catigara was located on the easternmost shore of theMare Indicum, 180 degrees East of the Cape St Vincent at, due to the scribal error, eight and a half degrees South of the Equator.[61]
Catigara is also shown at this location on Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 world map, which avowedly followed the tradition of Ptolemy. Ptolemy's information was thereby misinterpreted so that the coast of China, which should have been represented as part of the coast of eastern Asia, was falsely made to represent an eastern shore of the Indian Ocean. As a result, Ptolemy implied more land east of the 180th meridian and an ocean beyond.Marco Polo’s account of his travels in eastern Asia described lands and seaports on an eastern ocean apparently unknown to Ptolemy. Marco Polo’s narrative authorized the extensive additions to the Ptolemaic map shown on the 1492 globe ofMartin Behaim. The fact that Ptolemy did not represent an eastern coast of Asia made it admissible for Behaim to extend that continent far to the east. Behaim’s globe placed Marco Polo’s Mangi andCathay east of Ptolemy’s 180th meridian, andthe Great Khan’s capital,Cambaluc (Beijing), on the 41st parallel of latitude at approximately 233 degrees East. Behaim allowed 60 degrees beyond Ptolemy’s 180 degrees for the mainland of Asia and 30 degrees more to the east coast ofCipangu (Japan). Cipangu and the mainland of Asia were thus placed only 90 and 120 degrees, respectively, west of the Canary Islands.
The Codex Seragliensis was used as the base of a new edition of the work in 2006.[14] This new edition was used to "decode" Ptolemy's coordinates of Books 2 and 3 by an interdisciplinary team ofTU Berlin, presented in publications in 2010[62] and 2012.[63][64]
Christopher Columbus modified this geography further by using53+2⁄3 Italian nautical miles as the length of a degree instead of the longer degree of Ptolemy, and by adoptingMarinus of Tyre’s longitude of 225 degrees for the east coast of theMagnus Sinus. This resulted in a considerable eastward advancement of the longitudes given byMartin Behaim and other contemporaries of Columbus. By some process Columbus reasoned that the longitudes ofeastern Asia andCipangu respectively were about 270 and 300 degrees east, or 90 and 60 degrees west of theCanary Islands. He said that he had sailed 1100 leagues from the Canaries when he foundCuba in 1492. This was approximately where he thought the coast of eastern Asia would be found. On this basis of calculation he identifiedHispaniola with Cipangu, which he had expected to find on the outward voyage at a distance of about 700 leagues from the Canaries. His later voyages resulted in further exploration of Cuba and in the discovery ofSouth andCentral America. At first South America, theMundus Novus (New World) was considered to be a great island of continental proportions; but as a result of hisfourth voyage, it was apparently considered to be identical with the great Upper India peninsula (India Superior) represented by Behaim – the Cape of Cattigara. This seems to be the best interpretation of the sketch map made by Alessandro Zorzi on the advice ofBartholomew Columbus (Christopher's brother) around 1506, which bears an inscription saying that according to the ancient geographer Marinus of Tyre and Christopher Columbus the distance fromCape St Vincent on the coast of Portugal to Cattigara on the peninsula of India Superior was 225 degrees, while according to Ptolemy the same distance was 180 degrees.[65]
Prior to the 16th century, knowledge of geography in theOttoman Empire was limited in scope, with almost no access to the works of earlier Islamic scholars that superseded Ptolemy. HisGeography would again be translated and updated with commentary into Arabic underMehmed II, who commissioned works from Byzantine scholarGeorge Amiroutzes in 1465 and the Florentine humanistFrancesco Berlinghieri in 1481.[66][67]
There are two related errors:[68]
This suggests Ptolemy rescaled his longitude data to fit with a figure of 180,000 stadia for the circumference of the Earth, which he described as a "general consensus".[68] Ptolemy rescaled experimentally obtained data in many of his works on geography, astrology, music, and optics.
_Scandinavia.jpg)
German
