page_title: Ptolemy
hierarchical_section_title: Ptolemy
caption_attribution_description: English: Representation of Ptolemy. Previously published in Les vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres grecz, latins, et payens recueilliz de leurs tableaux livres et medalles antiques, et modernes. Par Andre Thevet angoumoysin, premier cosmographe du roy., premier tome, livre II, chap. 41, "Claude Ptolemee Pelusien", p. 87. Published by Blanche Marantin and Guillaume Chaudiere, Paris, 1584.
context_page_description: Claudius Ptolemy was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer and astrologer who wrote several scientific treatises, three of which were of importance to later Byzantine, Islamic and Western European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest, although it was originally entitled the Mathematical Treatise and then known as The Great Treatise. The second is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the astrological treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day. This is sometimes known as the Apotelesmatiká but more commonly known as the Tetrábiblos from the Koine Greek meaning "Four Books" or by the Latin Quadripartitum.
  Ptolemy lived in the city of Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt under the rule of the Roman Empire, had a Latin name, cited Greek philosophers, and used Babylonian observations and Babylonian lunar theory. The 14th century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes gave his birthplace as the prominent Greek city Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid.
context_section_description: Claudius Ptolemy (/ˈtɒləmi/; Koinē Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος, Klaúdios Ptolemaîos [kláwdios ptolɛmɛ́os]; Latin: Claudius Ptolemaeus; c. 100 – c. 170) was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer and astrologer who wrote several scientific treatises, three of which were of importance to later Byzantine, Islamic and Western European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest, although it was originally entitled the Mathematical Treatise (Μαθηματικὴ Σύνταξις) and then known as The Great Treatise (Ἡ Μεγάλη Σύνταξις). The second is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the astrological treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day. This is sometimes known as the Apotelesmatiká (Ἀποτελεσματικά) but more commonly known as the Tetrábiblos from the Koine Greek (Τετράβιβλος) meaning "Four Books" or by the Latin Quadripartitum.
  Ptolemy lived in the city of Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt under the rule of the Roman Empire, had a Latin name (which several historians have taken to imply he was also a Roman citizen), cited Greek philosophers, and used Babylonian observations and Babylonian lunar theory. The 14th century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes gave his birthplace as the prominent Greek city Ptolemais Hermiou (Πτολεμαΐς ‘Ερμείου) in the Thebaid (Θηβᾱΐς). This attestation is quite late, however, and there is no other evidence to confirm or contradict it. He died in Alexandria around 168.
caption: Early Baroque artist's rendition[1]
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