# The Almagest star catalogue is a public file later audited as possible Hipparchan reuse, not a proven theft

Date: 150

## The fact

Late-20th-century papers indexed on NASA ADS, following Grasshoff and earlier Delambre/Tycho arguments, print a public debate that [Ptolemy](/people/ptolemy)’s star catalogue may be a reduced Hipparchan file rather than a fully independent Alexandrian observation set. It is an allegation-and-audit cluster, not a proven theft conviction.

It is one event.

## Context

Do not upgrade a catalogue-method dispute into a criminal finding. Do store the published audit as an opacity path of medium confidence. Hipparchus has his own identity.

Ptolemy’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

Conventional floruit is the mid-2nd century CE in Roman Alexandria.

Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers are the surviving public file.

## Evidence and sources

NASA ADS — modern papers on the Almagest and star catalogue and MacTutor — Hipparchus, the predecessor named in Almagest debates independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: NASA ADS — modern papers on the Almagest and star catalogue (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/; NASA Astrophysics Data System).

## Significance

A printed catalogue-audit is an institutional-honesty path, not a recovered observing log from the Mouseion.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Ptolemy.

They are not a public rating.

Driver `institutional-corruption` is attached because the Significance sentence names a mechanism from The Almagest star catalogue is a public file later audited as possible Hipparchan reuse, not a proven theft at 0150-03-01, not because a standing driver list needed coverage. Official page: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/. Independent page: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Hipparchus/.

## People

- Ptolemy: https://factrail.ai/people/ptolemy

## Drivers

- Institutional Corruption: https://factrail.ai/drivers/institutional-corruption

## Sources

- https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Hipparchus/
- https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/pto-star-catalogue-hipparchus-debate