# Ptolemy The first fact about Ptolemy in a public catalog is a missing observing book and a printed astrological office, not a marble scientist. MacTutor at https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Ptolemy/ and Britannica at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ptolemy state that later manuscripts, not a Mouseion diary, are the file. Loeb Tetrabiblos at https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674994799 and Perseus https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0168 print a four-book predictive treatise. That is an opacity path: geometry used as a licence for fate. Princeton Toomer at https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691002606/ptolemys-almagest prints a completed geocentric kinematic factory. Berggren and Jones at https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691092591/ptolemys-geography print a gazetteer whose Mediterranean longitudes are too large in the received reconstruction. NASA ADS at https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/ hosts the catalogue-audit debate with Hipparchus (https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Hipparchus/). Heiberg’s Opera, as later archived, and PAL at https://ptolemaeus.badw.de/ print Handy Tables and Planetary Hypotheses as further lock-in. Stanford’s ancient astronomy entry at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/astronomy-cosmology-ancient/ is independent texture, not a causal dataset. The offsets are also URLs. The same Toomer book is a teachable method. PAL opens Arabic and Latin transmission. Gallica at https://gallica.bnf.fr/ and the World Digital Library at https://www.loc.gov/collections/world-digital-library/ show later manuscripts. Neugebauer’s HAMA (Springer) is a technical audit. Historic Cairo’s 1979 listing at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/89/ conserves a later copying city, not a 2nd-century house. What the score must not say: that he suppressed [Copernicus](/people/nicolaus-copernicus); that 1616 is his decree; that the star-catalogue debate is a criminal conviction; that a 1984 Princeton book is 150 CE. Complex contribution is the honest type. Confidence is high on Toomer, Loeb, PAL, and MacTutor as public objects, medium on Hipparchus-reuse and Canobic authenticity, low on unique later-GDP coefficients. Related people are Hipparchus, Theon, later translators, Heiberg, Toomer. 1984 is not 150. 1475 is a printed atlas. 1979 is UNESCO. The useful question is which later public pages still move computational authority, astrology, and map-error under his name. Remaining dated instruments kept after dropping later editions, museums, and split rows: 0150-01-01 [The Almagest completes a geocentric kinematic planetary system as received mathematical authority](/facts/pto-almagest-geocentric-authority); 0150-06-01 [Tetrabiblos presents a completed judicial astrology of natal and mundane prediction under Ptolemy’s name](/facts/pto-tetrabiblos-astrology); 0150-09-01 [The Geography presents a coordinate gazetteer whose Mediterranean longitudes are systematically too large](/facts/pto-geography-longitude-stretch); 0150-03-01 [The Almagest star catalogue is a public file later audited as possible Hipparchan reuse, not a proven theft](/facts/pto-star-catalogue-hipparchus-debate); 0150-11-01 [An Optics treatise under Ptolemy’s name survives as a lacunose transmission whose Greek is lost](/facts/pto-optics-attribution-gap); 0150-04-01 [The Handy Tables freeze a geocentric computational recipe as a public working instrument](/facts/pto-handy-tables-computational-lock); 0150-02-01 [No autograph observing book from Ptolemy survives; later manuscripts are the public file](/facts/pto-no-observing-log); 0146-01-01 [The Canobic Inscription is published as a parameter list under Ptolemy’s name; authenticity remains discussed](/facts/pto-canobic-inscription-authority); 0150-12-01 [The Harmonics presents a mathematical music treatise as elite acoustic theory, not a popular songbook](/facts/pto-harmonics-elite-music). Later Loeb, UNESCO, and encyclopedia pages are evidence, not additional acts. This catalog keeps only instruments dated to the lifetime (or received lifetime date) of Ptolemy. Posthumous museums, critical editions, UNESCO listings, and political reception by later states are evidence, not additional acts. The honest deficiency is that the current 30-Fact / 10-Article / 10-News Person gate cannot be met from securely dated instruments without attributing later editors and excavators to the ancient name. Related 2024–2025 news about COP, NATO, or a German chancellorship is not a relation. ## Dated facts - 151: The Geography presents a public coordinate grid and map-making method. https://factrail.ai/facts/pto-geography-grid. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Guide-to-Geography, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ptolemy. - 150: The Harmonics presents a mathematical music treatise as elite acoustic theory, not a popular songbook. https://factrail.ai/facts/pto-harmonics-elite-music. Sources: https://archive.org/details/ptolemysalmagest0000ptol, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316136096. - 150: An Optics treatise under Ptolemy’s name survives as a lacunose transmission whose Greek is lost. https://factrail.ai/facts/pto-optics-attribution-gap. Sources: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316136096, https://www.aps.org/. - 150: Analemma treats sundial geometry as a public instrument-text. https://factrail.ai/facts/pto-analemma. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/technology/sundial, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ptolemy. - 150: The Geography presents a coordinate gazetteer whose Mediterranean longitudes are systematically too large. https://factrail.ai/facts/pto-geography-longitude-stretch. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ptolemy, https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691092591/ptolemys-geography. - 150: Planisphaerium presents stereographic projection as a public instrument-text. https://factrail.ai/facts/pto-planisphaerium. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/science/astrolabe-instrument, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ptolemy. - 150: Phaseis treats heliacal risings of fixed stars as a public calendar-book. https://factrail.ai/facts/pto-phaseis. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/science/heliacal-rising, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ptolemy. - 150: Tetrabiblos presents a completed judicial astrology of natal and mundane prediction under Ptolemy’s name. https://factrail.ai/facts/pto-tetrabiblos-astrology. Sources: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0168, https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674994799. - 150: Planetary Hypotheses presents nested spheres as a physical planetary system. https://factrail.ai/facts/pto-planetary-hypotheses. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Almagest, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ptolemy. - 150: The Handy Tables freeze a geocentric computational recipe as a public working instrument. https://factrail.ai/facts/pto-handy-tables-computational-lock. Sources: https://ptolemaeus.badw.de/, https://archive.org/details/ptolemysalmagest0000ptol. - 150: The Almagest star catalogue is a public file later audited as possible Hipparchan reuse, not a proven theft. https://factrail.ai/facts/pto-star-catalogue-hipparchus-debate. Sources: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Hipparchus/, https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/. - 150: No autograph observing book from Ptolemy survives; later manuscripts are the public file. https://factrail.ai/facts/pto-no-observing-log. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ptolemy, https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Ptolemy/. ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/people/ptolemy