Ptolemy's Geography

Context

At a time of growing interest in empiricism, Ptolemy's popularity was increasing, and the Trechsel asked Servetus to create a better Ptolemy. This meant that Servetus (writing as Michael Villanovanus) was responsible not only for translating and correcting the text but also for composing entirely new sections to update the work.

Servetus chose to use the Pirkheimer edition as his base but compared it to the oldest Latin and Creek editions he could find in order create a more authentic book. He entitled his edition The Eight Books of the Account of Geography by Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria, now for the first time edited according to the translation of Bilabald Pirkhheimer, but compared to the Greek and early editions by Michael Villanoanus: This version was so extensive, so much of an improvement on what had gone before, that there are some who have claimed that Servetus was the father of comparative geography. Ahhough this is probably an overstatement, the 1.536 edition was both the most careful rendition available of Ptolemy's original conception and as exhaustive an ethnological treatise as had been done anywhere.

It was an enormous job, taking over two years. Tire book included fifty maps, all of which were accompanied by a statistical abstract and a commentary on the populace, climate, and industry of the area. Servetus carried over Pirkheimer's notations if he felt they were appropriate, but overwhelmingly the notes that made up the commentaries were his.

Some excerpts

Servetus being Servetus (or Villanovanus), he could not resist expressing himself pointedly, provocatively, and with wit. The English, he noted, were brave, the Scots fearless, the Italians vulgar, and the lrish "rude, inhospitable, barbarous and cruel:' Opposite the map of Germany, he wrote, 'Hungary produces cattle, Bavaria hogs, Franconia onions, turnips and licorice, Swabia harlots, Bohemia heretics, Bavaria again thieves, Helvetia bangmen and herdsmen, Westphalia liars arrd all Germany gluttons and drunkards:' He was a good deal more kind to France, except that he atempted that “I have seen myself seen the king (Francis I) touching many laboring under, but I did not see that they were cured”

About Palestine, the legendary land of milk and honey, Servetus retained Pirkheimer’s general description bu added a joke:

“Know, however, most worthy reader, that it is mere boasting and untruth when so much excellence is ascribed to this land; the experience of merchants and others, travelers who have visisted it, proving it to be inhospitable, barren, and altogether without amenity. Ehrefore you may say that the land is promised, indeed, but it is os little promise when spoken in every-day terms”

This passage, which he did not even really write, was to come back and haunt him later because, unfortunately, one of those who ascribed ecellence to the Holy Land had been Moses.

Prints

Fist Edition

Claudii Ptolemaei Alexandrini Geographicae enarrationis libri octo. Ex Bilibaldi Pirckeymheri tralatione, sed ad graeca & prisca exemplaria à Michaële Villanovano iam primum recogniti. Adiecta insuper ab eodem scholia, quibus exoleta urbium nomina ad nostri seculi morem exponuntur .... Lugduni, ex officina Melchioris et Gasparis Trechsel fratrum, MDXXXV (1535). Several copies are preserved in various libraries

Second Edition

Claudii Ptolemaei Alexandrini geographicae enarrationis libri octo.... à Michaële Villanovano secundó recogniti .... Prostat Lugduni apud Hugonem à Porta, M.D.XLI. Lyon 1541. Book is dedicated to Servetus's protector, Archbishop Palmier

Translations

English: Fragments translated byCharles David O'Malley, op. cit., pp. 15-37 in 1953

Spanish: Descripciones geograficas del estado moderno de las regiones, en la geografía de Claudio Ptolomeo Alejandrino por Miguel Vilanovano (Miguel Servet) precedidas de una biografía del autor y traducidas del Latin por Dr. José Goyanes Capdepvilla. Madrid, Imprenta y Encuadernación de Julio Cosano, 1932