Claudius Ptolemy The astronomer

The astronomer Claudius Ptolemy lived from roughly one hundred-one hundred seventy CE. Little or no is understood of him, together with where he was born. Claudius means citizen of Rome, whereas Ptolemy means resident of Egypt. Some sources point out that he was a citizen of Rome, others that he lived in Alexandria, Egypt.

 He was also a mathematician, geographer and astrologer. In a method, he was to his period what Leonardo da Vinci was to the Renaissance. While lots of Claudius Ptolemy’s work has been refuted, his treatises on astronomy, astrology, geography and music were the foundations from which subsequent scientists constructed their theories.

The Ptolemaic system of the universe grew to become the dominant cosmological mannequin for centuries thereafter, and was not displaced till the seventeenth century by Kepler and Copernicus.

Fashionable astrologers contemplate Ptolemy as the writer of one of many oldest full manuals of astrology, - the Tetrabiblos (Greek) that means 4 Books. Though we all know Ptolemy did not invent his strategies of astrology we acknowledge his contribution as being one in all orchestrating the mass of Eastern star lore into an organized and reasoned exposition. The Tetrabiblos provided an in depth rationalization of the philosophical framework of astrology, enabling its practitioners to answer critics on scientific as well as spiritual grounds.

As a leading mental of his day, Ptolemy's patronage and approval of astrology added to its educational respectability. By preserving its credibility as a science in addition to an artwork, he safeguarded its practice throughout the medieval period when many different occult research were persecuted on non secular grounds. He spoke of astrology with authority and lucidity, establishing the Tetrabiblos as the definitive reference for astrological students. It was used extensively by Arabic students, who regarded Ptolemy as the ultimate word on the subject, and later by European ones when it was translated back into Latin within the twelfth century.