Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Ptolemy's Geographia reconstructed

The Greek mathematician/astronomer/geographer Ptolemy (not to be confused with the ancient kings of Egypt) was an amazing man.  He cataloged coordinates and routes and made what can be argued is the first map of the ancient world. 

Apparently the oldest existing copy of Ptolemy’s work is falling apart and some Germans got together and photographed every page and reconstructed it for publication.  As of yet, it’s only in German and the original Greek.

Ptolemy’s Geographia was in the hands of Columbus as he was preparing to cross the Atlantic.  Which gives you some indication of it’s importance in the history of geography and cartography.

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