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Claudius Ptolemy is widely considered to be the father of cartography. Living in Alexandria at a time when it was the prime centre of learning, and the hub of trade between east and west. Ptolemy was a Greek mathematician, astronomer and geographer, and achieved pre-eminence in all these sciences. For fourteen centuries the astronomical theories of Ptolemy were accepted, until they were finally put to rest by Isaac Newton.
It was Ptolemy whose maps introduced the method of geocentric orientation, grid structure and mathematical projections, and names of latitude and longitude. Unfortunately, Ptolemy subscribed to theoretical conceptions where knowledge was lacking. In about AD150, he published his major geographical work "Geographia", a work in eight volumes which is said to have contained a world map, twenty-six regional maps, and numerous smaller maps. It is not possible to verify their existence as the earliest maps that have survived are of the twelfth century.
There were no maps in the first edition of "Geographia" published in 1475 for the use of Western scholars. The first edition to contain maps was published two years later. Twenty-seven woodcut maps presented the world in the "Ptolemaic" format: a world map, ten maps of Europe, four of Africa, and twelve of Asia. They were to be republished in forty-six editions between 1477 (the Bologna edition) and 1730 (the Amsterdam edition, which also contained maps originally compiled by Gerard Mercator). Despite its distorted view of the world, Ptolemy's reputation was such that his "Geographia" atlas of the known world was accepted unquestioned for over fourteen hundred years!
