Ancient Mapmaking
Claudius Ptolemy, who lived from approximately 85 to 168 AD, was an ancient mapmaker whose works were rediscovered in Europe after being lost until the fifteenth century. He lived in Alexandria, Egypt, where he used Alexandria’s famous library to compile existing knowledge of astronomy. geography, and astrology into three treatises. The astronomy and geography treatises had a long-lasting influence. but they both presented serious errors that went uncorrected for about 1,300 years. Ptolemy’s astronomy treatise, Almagest, rejected the theory earlier proposed by Aristarchus (approximately 230 BC) that Earth revolves around the Sun.Ptolemy’s geocentric idea-that Earth was the center of the universe -accepted the ideas of Aristotle and formed the main thesis of his treatise. When Ptolemy’s works resurfaced in the fifteenth century.they were accepted as gems of ancient wisdom, and few had the nerve or the authority to challenge them. Likewise, any sixteenth century maps that altered the Ptolemy map were regarded with suspicion.
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