Ptolemy of Alexandria

The following texts are the property of their respective authors and we thank them for giving us the opportunity to share for free to students, teachers and users of the Web their texts will used only for illustrative educational and scientific purposes only.

All the information in our site are given for nonprofit educational purposes

The information of medicine and health contained in the site are of a general nature and purpose which is purely informative and for this reason may not replace in any case, the council of a doctor or a qualified entity legally to the profession.

Ptolemy of Alexandria

Ptolemy of Alexandria (Second Century, C.E.) Author of the Almagest, which systematized classical teachings on astronomy. His work, with its geocentric theory became the cornerstone of medieval astronomy, and was widely read by figures like Columbus. Ptolemy’s work was based on a geocentric theory, but he believed in a spherical earth. Galileo’s Dialogue Between the Two Great Systems of the World (1632), published almost exactly eighty years after Copernicus’ advocacy of a heliocentric system in On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres (1543), suggests how tenacious the Ptolemaic vision of an earth-centered universe was. Galileo’s treatise occasioned his accusation by the Jesuits, his trial under Pope Urban VIII, and his house arrest, which continued until his death in 1642.

Source : http://www.dlt.ncssm.edu/lmtm/docs/columbus/Glossary.doc

Web site link: http://www.dlt.ncssm.edu/lmtm/

Google key word : Ptolemy of Alexandria file type : doc

Author : not indicated on the source document of the above text

If you are the author of the text above and you not agree to share your knowledge for teaching, research, scholarship (for fair use as indicated in the United States copyrigh low) please send us an e-mail and we will remove your text quickly.