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A mistranslation in Manitius
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2013
Extract
In Book i ch. 2 of his great astronomical work, the Syntaxis Mathematica (widely known since Arabic times as the Almagest), Ptolemy outlines briefly the order of topics in his exposition: (1) discussion of the position of the earth as a whole in relation to the heavens; (2) the relations between the ecliptic and the horizon at different terrestrial latitudes; (3) the movements of the sun and moon and their consequences. Without these preliminaries, says Ptolemy (9·5 ff.), a methodical treatment of the final part of his undertaking, namely (4) the so-called fixed stars and (5) the planets, is impossible. The Greek sentence in question runs as follows (9·7–11):
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- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1983
References
1 Ed. J. L. Heiberg, 2 vols (Leipzig 1898–1903), referred to here by page and line of vol. i.
2 Manitius, K., Ptolemäus: Handbuch der Astronomie (Leipzig 1963) i 5Google Scholar.
3 Pedersen, O., A Survey of the Almagest (Odense 1974) 32Google Scholar, ‘Section B3 [i.e. the books on the fixed stars and the planets] is said to be the core of the whole work’ (my italics).
4 E.g. Pannekoek, A., A History of Astronomy (London 1961) 158Google Scholar, ‘The remaining and most important part of Ptolemy's work, the last five books, is occupied by the planets’; cf. Price, D. J., Science Since Babylon2 (Yale 1975) 8 f.Google Scholar
5 See my Early Greek Astronomy to Aristotle (London 1970) 34, 37–8, 89Google Scholar.