Ptolemaic system

The Ptolemaic system was a model to explain the motions of the heavens in which the earth was the centre of the universe and all other celestial bodies revolved around it, espoused by Claudius Ptolemaeus in his work, the Almagest some time around the 2nd century, C.E., and accepted for over 1,000 years by the vast majority of Europeans to be the correct cosmological model. It may be also called the geocentric model. It was overthrown by the Copernican revolution after Galileo Galilei and Copernicus discovered that the planets orbited the sun.

The Almagest

An Epitome of the Almagest (Epitome in Ptolemaei Almagestum) was written between 1460 and 1463 by the Austrian astronomer Georg Peurbach and his famous pupil Johannes Regiomontanus at the suggestion of Cardinal Bessarion. It gave Europeans the first sophisticated understanding of Ptolemy's astronomy, and was studied by every competent astronomer of the 16th century.

Related Topics:
1460 - 1463 - Georg Peurbach - Johannes Regiomontanus - Cardinal Bessarion - 16th century

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Unlike earlier systems (such as 'the stars move because that is the will of the gods', or the model of concentric spheres), the Ptolemaic model explained all phenomena in the sky, while holding to Plato's dictum which states that all motions in the heavens can be explained with uniform, circular motion, and obeying Aristotelian physics.

Related Topics:
Star - Concentric - Sphere - Phenomena - Plato - Dictum - Aristotelian - Physics

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