Overcoming Ptolemy

This book explores the effects that the Ptolemaic template developed by Claudius Ptolemy almost two thousand years ago had on the cartography and worldview of Europe through and beyond the age of European discovery. It shows how this template was refined and ultimately overcome.

Introduction

1. The Classical View of the Afro-Eurasian World
2. The Islamic Crossover
3. Ptolemaic Revival and Cartographic Adjustments in a Transitional Age
4. Revisions to the Ptolemaic Template in the Age of Discovery (1300-1500s)
5. The European Discoveries and the Print Revolution Reprised (1500-1700)
6. The Ptolemaic World-in-Motion: Enlightenment Science and the Jesuit Advance on China
7. The European Framing of Ptolemy's India Extra Gangem
8. Reimagining Ptolemy's Sinus Magnus and the Historical Geography of the China Seas

Conclusion: Conclusion: Post-Ptolemaic Constructions of Empire and Nation-State