Ptolemy and Ancient Astronomy

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2011

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Greek astronomer and mathematician Ptolemy, and consider how and why his geocentric theory of the universe held sway for so many centuries. In his seminal astronomical work, the Almagest, written in the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy proposed that the Earth was at the centre of the universe and explained all the observed motions of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars with a system of uniform circular motions which he referred to as 'epicycles'. But Ptolemy was a polymath and did not confine his study of the stars to mathematical equations. He was also interested in astrology and his book on this topic, the Tetrabiblos, tackled the spiritual aspects of the cosmos and its influence on individual lives and personalities.Ptolemy's model of the universe remained the dominant one for over a thousand years. It was not until 1543, and Copernicus's heliocentric theory of the world, that the Ptolemaic model was finally challenged, and not until 1609 that Johannes Kepler's New Astronomy put an end to his ideas for good. But how and why did Ptolemy's system survive for so long?With:Liba TaubProfessor of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge UniversityJim BennettDirector of the Museum of the History of Science at the University of OxfordCharles BurnettProfessor of the History of Islamic Influences on Europe at the Warburg Institute, University of LondonProducer: Natalia Fernandez.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
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0:46.5	the program. Hello mortal as I am I know that I'm born for a day but when I follow the serid multitude of the stars in their circular
0:55.2	course my feet no longer touch the earths. These are the words of one of the most influential
1:00.3	astronomers and mathematicians of all time,
1:02.8	Claudius Ptolemy, writing in Alexandria in the second century AD.
1:07.2	Ptolemy's model of the universe may have been based on mathematics,
1:10.4	but his motivation to map the solar system came not just from a thirst for knowledge
1:14.9	but also from his desire to touch the divine.
1:18.0	Ptolemy presented as a strong astronomical vision in his great work, the Almagest, and his view of the solar
1:24.3	system with the Earth at its centre held sway for nearly 1,500 years. But why
1:29.1	was Tolom is universal model so convincing and how did it survive for so long.
1:34.0	With me to discuss Ptolemy and the ancient astronomy,
1:37.0	Leibetobe, Leibetaube,
1:40.0	Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University, Jim Bennett, Director of the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford, and Charles Burnett, Professor of the History of Islamic Influences in Europe at the Warburg Institute, University of London.
1:53.0	Hebatim, who was Ptolemy?
	...

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