The Almagest - Objectivity 124

Mike Merrifield joins Brady at the Royal Astronomical Society to look at a first published edition of Ptolemy's Almagest.

Catch more of Professor Merrifield on Sixty Symbols and Deep Sky Videos...

Films by James Hennessy and Brady Haran

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Some keywords: Mike Merrifield, Sixty Symbols, Nottingham, first published edition, 1515, Ptolemy, Almagest, tables, star positions, magnitudes, protractor, Hipparchus, model, solar system, earth in centre, retrograde motion, epicycles, polymath, world atlas, Lord Lindsay,

[Visocacas]

That book is nothing short of a work of art. The typography and illustrations and diagrams... just amazing.

I'm gonna see if I can find a PDF version of it somewhere online.

[smylesg]

Tom Apostol's Project Mathematics series from Cal Tech (now available on YT) refers to Hipparchus' treatise on chords of circles. Specifically that "this work is now lost, but many of the ideas survived in Ptolemy's Almagest."

[johnsonguitarstudio]

@ 2:33 "I'm sure that's not what we're supposed to be looking at anyway, "

In 1515 those initials were usually quite relevant to the information on the page. The emblem book was pretty popular amongst those with the means to buy books, and initials can be miniature emblemata. The fact that you were looking at an ouroboros in specific is QUITE. SIGNIFICANT.

It's something a 16th-17th century author, printer, or translator would have EXPECTED the educated class to immediately take note of and consider the text more deeply based on its association.

[Fawnarix]

I've read various sections of Ptolemy's work and I have to say it continues to be one of the greatest works I have ever read. His preface especially, where he refers to the usage of mathematics as a way of bridging the mortal science of physics with the divine science of astronomy.

[Shady_Lane]

Unrelated question: In all your time filming at the royal society, have you ever accidentally damaged anything from the archives? I'd love to see a blooper reel if you have any

[millamulisha]

Vieta is such an underrated mathematician. Needs more publicity.

[polygondon]

Woot! New Objectivity..and one with my favorite DeepSkyVideos guest :)

[PinkChucky]

Nice to see professor Merrifield in this channel :-)

[MarshalPhilip]

I do not think the same edition of "Almagest" in the video is the one given be Lord Lindsay as recorded in the 1876 Register. The Register records a gift of "Ptolemy's Almagest, fol. 1579" and the video features a 1515 folio published in Venice. Also the Register recorded that Vieta's Canon is a 1579 folio published in Paris, and it omits a mention of the publisher's city for the Almagest.

[timdiggerm]

TRANSLATION FOR AMERICANS
"Chinese Whispers" = "The Game of Telephone"

[guyh]

There! I did it again!
Clicked the "like" after one second of video.

Didn't regret it either!

[tigermadi]

I love how the book is sitting on a pillow😂

[dogphlap]

Interesting that the minutes of 1876 has the full stop or period inside the closing bracket, a style which is still common in the US today. I had assumed the US had broken with UK tradition and adopted that style possibly to protect the more vulnerable to physical damage character. Looks like I was wrong and it was the UK that changed or at least in this one case but probably more generally.

[TheTechnoLocker]

More of Mike in Objectivity videos please! :D

[Sparky]

The pictures at the start of chapters are called illuminated letters.

[ChopTheViking]

The decorative letters are called Illumination, Brady.

[klausolekristiansen]

Should we award 23 And Me a special vote of thanks?

[Haplo-san]

1:24 Are those dots just errors in copying process?

[mimzim]

How come the video is 4 years old and it is the first time i see this channel

[ShlebyC]

Brady, did you get your 23 and me test done? I'd love to see a video about it! I got mine done as well, having no prior knowledge of my ancestry (very messy family tree) and it was so interesting!