Ptolemy’s Geography and Ancient Mapmaking

Record summary

Ptolemy’s Geography is a second-century compilation of coordinates, regional descriptions and map-construction methods. It preserves information from earlier geographical traditions while also reflecting errors, transformations and manuscript transmission. The work matters for comparing ancient navigation, cartography, imperial knowledge and the difference between textual coordinates and archaeological landscapes. Researchers must distinguish Ptolemy’s original composition from later Greek, Byzantine, Arabic and Renaissance copying, interpolation and reconstruction of maps that may never have existed in the surviving form.