Guy Lochhead, 29/10/11
Greek(?)-Roman(?)-Egyptian(?) thinker based in Alexandria who made significant contributions to the fields of geography, astronomy, music and natural history. He is perhaps best known for ‘Geographia’, in which he pooled contemporary geographical knowledge of the Roman Empire, and ‘Almagest’, the oldest surviving work of ancient astronomy. He was born around 90 CE and died around 168 CE.Every age needs people like Ptolemy to compile its knowledge, but I’m not sure Ptolemy’s work has much relevance here beyond its historical interest. His world map is beautiful and fascinating but it’s also wrong. I suppose that’s the problem. Still, whataguy!