Αλμαγέστη=Almagest=المجسطي
Wiktionary
Etymology
Arabic المجسطي (al-majisṭī, “almagest”), which is an addition of the Arabic definite article to a transliteration of Ancient Greek μεγίστη (“greatest”)
WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almagest
Η
Αλμαγέστη αποτελεί το μεγαλύτερο
και σημαντικότερο αστρονομικό
σύγγραμμα της Αρχαιότητας,
η αυθεντία του οποίου διατηρήθηκε μέχρι
τον δέκατο
έκτο αιώνα. Αποτελεί την κύρια πηγή
στην οποία ανατρέχουν οι αστρονόμοι
μέχρι και σήμερα για ιστορικά δεδομένα,
καθόσον υπήρξε ο βασικός αστρονομικός
οδηγός για περίπου μιάμιση χιλιετία.
The
Almagest is a 2nd-century mathematical
and astronomical
treatise on the apparent motions of the stars
and planetary
paths. Written in Greek
by Claudius
Ptolemy, a Roman
era scholar of Egypt,
it is one of the most influential scientific texts of all time, with
its geocentric
model accepted for more than twelve hundred years from its origin
in Hellenistic Alexandria,
in the medieval Byzantine
and Islamic
worlds, and in Western Europe through the Middle
Ages and early Renaissance
until Copernicus.
The
Almagest is the critical source of information on ancient
Greek
astronomy. It has also been valuable to students of mathematics
because it documents the ancient Greek mathematician Hipparchus's
work, which has been lost. Hipparchus wrote about trigonometry,
but because his works are no longer extant, mathematicians use
Ptolemy's book as their source for Hipparchus' works and ancient
Greek trigonometry in general.
The
treatise's conventional Greek title is Μαθηματικὴ
Σύνταξις (Mathēmatikē
Syntaxis), and the treatise is also known by the Latin
form of this, Syntaxis mathematica
Claudius Ptolemy
( /ˈtɒləmi/;
Greek:
Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος,
Klaudios Ptolemaios; Latin:
Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD 90 – AD
168) was a Greek-Roman
citizen of Egypt
who wrote in Greek.[1]
He was a mathematician,
astronomer,
geographer,
astrologer, and
poet of a single epigram in the Greek
Anthology.[2][3]
He lived in Egypt
under Roman
rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais
Hermiou in the Thebaid
Ptolemy
was the author of several scientific treatises, at least three of
which were of continuing importance to later Islamic
and European
science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the
Almagest
(in Greek, Ἡ Μεγάλη Σύνταξις, "The Great
Treatise", originally Μαθηματικὴ Σύνταξις,
"Mathematical Treatise"). The second is the Geography,
which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the
Greco-Roman
world. The third is the astrological treatise known sometimes in
Greek as the Apotelesmatika (Ἀποτελεσματικά),
more commonly in Greek as the Tetrabiblos
(Τετράβιβλος "Four books"), and in Latin
as the Quadripartitum (or four books) in which he attempted to
adapt horoscopic
astrology to the Aristotelian
natural
philosophy of his day.
ONLINE
ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY
- late 14c., title of a treatise on astronomy by Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria, extended in Middle English to other works on astrology or astronomy, from Old French almageste (13c.), from Arabic al majisti, from al "the" + Greek megiste "the greatest (composition)," from fem. of megistos, superlative of megas "great" (see mickle). Originally titled in Greek Megale syntaxis tes astronomios "Great Work on Astronomy;" Arab translators in their admiration altered this.
