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Of paths and places: the origin of Ptolemy’s Geography

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Abstract

In his Geography, Ptolemy recorded the geographical coordinates of more than 6,300 toponyms of the known oikoumenē. This study presents the type of geographical information that was used by Ptolemy as well as the methods he applied to derive his geographical coordinates. A new methodological approach was developed in order to analyse the characteristic deviations (displacement vectors) of Ptolemy’s data from their reconstructed reference locations. The clusters of displacement vectors establish that Ptolemy did not obtain his coordinates from astronomical observations at each geographical location. The characteristic displacement vectors reveal how Ptolemy derived the coordinates: (1) he constructed locations on maps using a compass and ruler, for which he employed a small amount of astronomical reference data and geographical distance information; (2) he made schematic drawings of coastlines, based on textual descriptions of coastal formations; (3) and he situated additional locations within the established framework using reports of travel itineraries.

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Notes

  1. See Ptolemy’s Geography 1.4.

  2. No equivalent word for the term “coordinates” can be found in any of Ptolemy’s works.

  3. See Ptol. Geogr. 1.18.2 and 1.18.4. Mittenhuber (2009) provides a detailed analysis of the textual tradition of the Ptolemaic maps.

  4. Ptol. Geogr. 5.1.2–3. Our analysis is based on the values given in Stückelberger and Graßhoff (2006), Mittenhuber and Koch (2009), and Stückelberger and Mittenhuber (2009).

  5. Ptol. Geogr. 1.2.2. This and the following translations of the Geography have all been taken from Berggren–Jones (2000).

  6. Ptol. Geogr. 1.4.2.

  7. Ptol. Syntaxis 1–2 (Toomer 1984).

  8. See Ptol. Geogr. 1.4.1.

  9. Ptol. Geogr. 1.13.

  10. See Berggren–Jones (2000), pp. 16–17.

  11. For example, see Ptol. Geogr. 1.11.3, 1.12.1 and 1.13.1.

  12. See Neugebauer (1975), pp. 366–367 and 706–736.

  13. Strabo Geographika 2.5.38.

  14. Strab. 2.5.41.

  15. Strab. 2.5.38. See also Vitruvius’ De Architectura 9.7.1 (Rowland and Howe 1999).

  16. The theoretical background has been described in Baumgartner and Graßhoff (2004).

  17. Because of the differences in the prime meridian and the large errors in the longitudes of the Geography, a norm has to be chosen to enable a meaningful comparison to be made between the text’s data and the actual positions of the locations.

  18. Brodersen (1995), Rathmann (2007), and Adams and Laurence (2001).

  19. For an edition of the Latin text of Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia with German translation see Winkler–König (1988). For a Greek edition with German translation of Strabos Geographika see Radt (2002), for an edition with English translation see Jones (1917).

  20. Şahin–Adak (2007) and Graßhoff–Mittenhuber (2009).

  21. TIB (1976) and Talbert (2000).

  22. A detailed analysis of the errors in the first map of Asia is given in Rinner (2013).

  23. Strab. 2.5.

  24. Strab. 2.5.34–43 and Ptol. Synt. 2.6.

  25. Strab. 13.2.6.

  26. Strab. 13.2.2.

  27. Strab. 13.2.6.

  28. Strab. 2.5.23.

  29. Strab. 14.2.14.

  30. Strabo assumes 4900 stades for the distance between the parallels of Rhodes and Byzantium (Strab. 2.5.41).

  31. Ptol. Geogr. 1.2.4.

  32. Ptol. Geogr. 1.13.

  33. Descriptions of this area can be found in Strab. 13.1–14.2, in Pliny’s Naturalis Historia 5.116–123; 5.136–140 and in Mela’s De Situ Orbis III 1.88–96; 2.100–101 (Brodersen 1994).

  34. Strab. 12.2.9. The translation has been taken from Jones (1988).

  35. The position of the Euphrates already exists as a result of a coarse subdivision of the oikoumenē.

  36. Strab. 11.12.3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Gerd Graßhoff & Elisabeth Rinner

  2. Excellence Cluster EXC 264, Berlin, Germany

    Gerd Graßhoff & Elisabeth Rinner

  3. Max Planck Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany

    Gerd Graßhoff

  4. Burgerbibliothek of Berne, Berne, Switzerland

    Florian Mittenhuber

Authors
  1. Gerd Graßhoff
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  2. Florian Mittenhuber
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  3. Elisabeth Rinner
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Correspondence to Gerd Graßhoff.

Additional information

Communicated by: Alexander Jones.

The findings referred to in this paper originate from the project, “Ancient Cartography”, of the former Karman Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities of the University of Bern. The final stage of the research was supported by the excellence cluster EXC 264. We would like to thank Silvia Polla and the project’s co-directors, Markus Wäfler and Michael Heinzelmann, for their invaluable contributions to the overall success of the project.

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Graßhoff, G., Mittenhuber, F. & Rinner, E. Of paths and places: the origin of Ptolemy’s Geography . Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. 71, 483–508 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00407-017-0194-7

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