Ptolemy, Claudius

Greek astronomer, mathematician and geographer at the library at Alexandria, Egypt. His “Almagest” was the most important work of Astronomy until the 16th Century. The text for his “Geographia” composed c. 160, dominated the Christian and Muslim worlds for a thousand years. The earliest surviving manuscript for it, from the 12th century, was brought to Italy and translated into Latin by Jacopo d’Angelos in 1406. The first printed edition, with no maps, came out in 1475. The first edition with maps – probably engraved by Taddeo Crivelli – came out in 1477 in Bologna. The first edition outside Italy, the “Cosmographiae” was printed in Ulm, in 1482 (The “Ulm Ptolemy”), by Lienhart Holle, with four contemporary woodblock maps. Martin Waldseemuller‘s edition of 1513 added 20 new maps. Gastaldi‘s miniature edition, Venice, 1548, had 60 maps. Mercator‘s 1578 edition had only the classical maps. Magini‘s 1596 edition had maps newly engraved by G. Porro.