Ptolemy
100 – 170 Greco-Roman astronomer, geographer, mathematician
The astronomer whose Earth-centered model ruled science for 1,400 years.
- Religion
- Greco-Roman polytheism assumed; his work is scientific rather than religious.
- Affiliations
- Worked at Alexandria. No secret society.
Ptolemy compiled the Almagest, a mathematical model of the heavens that placed Earth at the center and predicted planetary motion. His Geography mapped the known world with coordinates. Both works dominated their fields until Copernicus and the age of exploration overturned them.
Connections
- rival of Nicolaus Copernicus — Copernicus displaced his geocentric system with a Sun-centered one.
In the timeline
- 150 Ptolemy's Almagest preserves the Babylonian sky central figure
- 150 Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos codifies astrology central figure
- 150 Ptolemy maps the world in the Geography central figure
- 150 Ptolemy's Almagest codifies the geocentric universe central figure
- 1406 Ptolemy's Geography returns to Europe central figure
- 1492 Columbus sails on Ptolemy's small Earth central figure
- 1543 Copernicus overturns Ptolemy central figure