|
Introduction
Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus) lived in the second century A.D., and probably spent most of his life in Alexandria. He was an extraordinary polymath who made lasting contributions to astronomy, geography, and mathematics. Of his many books, the one of interest to us is his Geography: it had eight parts, of which the last contained instructions for preparing maps of the world. With the rest of Greek learning, Ptolemy’s works were lost to western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. The Geography was rediscovered by western Europeans during the late twelfth century, as part of that great turning back to classical antiquity which we call the Renaisance. The work was translated into Latin about 1405, and during the rest of the fifteenth century numerous manuscript copies were made.
Then, in 1477, the first printed edition of the Geography was published at Bologna, and during the years which followed numerous further editions appeared. The Ulm edition of 1482, from which these slides are taken, was the first to include “new” maps, not in the Ptolemaic set. The Newberry Library copy (Ayer *6 P9 1482) is particularly finely colored, using the almost opaque pigments conventional at the time.
|
| |
|
The World (Image 1)
|
|
 This charmingly colored map gives us a conspectus of Ptolemy’s world-view. In many ways it was defective: Asia extended too far to the east, the Mediterranean was elongated, and a mythical southern continent appeared. All the same, it was a very great improvement on its medieval predecessors, and with its framework of mathematical coordinates offered the possibility of infinite refinement.
|
| |
|
Britain and Ireland (Image 2)
|
|
 The most striking thing about this map is the strange easterly distortion of Scotland. However, if we look beyond this feature, we are bound to be impressed by the relative abundance of names and the accuracy of their positioning, considering how remote this province must have been for Ptolemy. Major towns like London, St. Alban’s, Colchester, and York are well shown, and even obscure rivers like the Loxa, or Lossie, are inserted.
|
| |
|
The Iberian Penisula (Image 3)
|
|
 Here again, there are some gross distortions: Cape Saint Vincent sticks out much too far into the Atlantic, the imaginary Cassiterides are seen off north-western Spain, and the Pyrenees extend into the Bay of Biscay. But there is also a wealth of place names, accurately located, and a useful delineation of the mountain chains. The general outline is remarkably well obseved.
|
| |
|
Italy (Image 4)
|
|
 This map, with its powerful indication of the Alps and the Italian lakes, breaks down only in Southern Italy and Sicily, notoriously recalcitrant for cartographers.
|
| |
|
The Near East (Image 5)
|
|
 It is curious that Ptolemy gives such an east-west slant to the coast of what is now Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. His Cyprus is characteristically deformed, but he does succeed in giving some idea of the relationship between Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, and of the way they in turn fit in with Babylon and Mesopotamia.
|
| |
|
Africa (Image 6)
|
|
 Here the Red Sea, northern Nile, and Egypt are well obseved. But the river system of the interior is quite fantastic, relying no doubt on ill-understood travellers’ tales, and perhaps on reports of desert wadis which only seasonally held water. Of course, it took a very long time before the main lines of the interior were understood, and it was no light matter to ascertain even the rough shape of the coastline before Africa had been circumnavigated.
|
| |
|
References
Skelton, R.A. “Bibliographical Note” in Claudius Ptolemaus, Cosmographia, Ulm, 1482. Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1963 (T.O.T. 1st series, volume 2).
Thomson, J.O. History of Ancient Geography. Cambridge: University Press, 1948.
|
