Astronomy of Ptolemy

Michael Lahanas

Πτολεμαίος Κλαύδιος

).

Boethius translated the Almagest into Latin although his translation was lost and so in the early years this work was ignored in the West. In the late 820s Ptolemy's Almagest was translated into Arabic. The Ptolemaic explanation of the motions of the planets remained the accepted wisdom until the Polish scholar Copernicus proposed a heliocentric view in 1543. It should be noted, too, that Ptolemy's system is actually more accurate than Copernicus's. The heliocentric formulation does not improve on Ptolemy's until Kepler's Laws are also added.

Well do I know that I am mortal, a creature of one day.
But if my mind follows the winding paths of the stars
Then my feet no longer rest on earth, but standing by
Zeus himself I take my fill of ambrosia, the divine dish.
Claudius Ptolemy (Scott Hildreth, ISLS Colloquium - Autumn 2003)

and (Preliminary version)

Dennis Duke, The Measurement Method of the Almagest Stars

, Princeton University Press (October 19, 1998) ISBN: 0691002606

C.M. Linton. C.M. Linton. Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004

Greek Astronomy , Heath, Dover Publications, Incorporated, 1991 reprint (from 1932 original)