Re: Equinoxes

[brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>]

> At 7:45 AM -0700 10/19/97, brian whatcott wrote:
>
> > ...Claud of Ptolemy...


At 13:49 10/19/97 -0700, Leigh wrote:
> ... a third astronomer, Claudius Ptolemaeus of Alexandria
> (Ptolemy)...

> Leigh

Apparently Ptolemy was born at Ptolemais Hermii, a Grecian city of 
the Egyptian Thebaid (though one source gives his birthplace 
as Pelusium.)

 It is traditional to associate his works with Alexandria 
(since Ptolemy himself notes that he made his observations
"in the parallel of Alexandria.")

 At least according to one scholium, he lived for forty years
 at Canopus, about fifteen miles east of the capital, Alexandria.

Ptolemy's additions to the star catolog compiled by Hipparchus 
and others were said to have been inscribed on pillars installed 
in the temple of Serapis at Canopis.

I mention these details to explain why I talk of Claud of Ptolemy.
 
To take a personal illustration; When the Norman census takers
enumerated the little Warwickshire village of Whatcott, there was 
no person there by the name of Whatcott: a place only gains value 
as an identifier AFTER one has left that place - so we find that 
there were many Whatcotts buried at Evesham, not many miles away.
 And quite soon that village became Whatcote, in the Norman French 
fashion, the name by which it is still known.

So we have a choice of defining a person by his origin, AFTER he 
has departed it, or in the academic manner we can talk of 
Feynman of CalTech (rather than Feynman of Far Rockaway...)

 I believe it is in this latter academic sense that we refer to 
Ptolemy of Alexandria, and in the first-mentioned sense we would 
refer to Claud(ius) of Ptolemy (Ptolemais or Ptolemaeus.)

Sincerely

brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK