The Geography

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I

...it becomes altogether impossible to obtain the desired result. This is currently happening to many people regarding the work of Marinus Marinus of Tyre (c. 70–130 AD), a geographer whose lost work served as the primary source for Ptolemy. This is because map tables are not provided based on the final edition of his model; instead, people attempt to produce them from his commentaries. They are clearly deceived in many instances due to the unsuitable form and confusion of the work, as anyone who has tried it can see. For it is necessary to have the position of both longitude Distance east or west and latitude Distance north or south simultaneously for any of the noted locations so that the places can be fixed where they belong; in the edition of Marinus, this cannot be found immediately. In some places, he provides the latitude alone and separately, as the matter required in his notation of parallels Lines of latitude; in other places, he gives only the longitudes, as in his description of meridians Lines of longitude. Usually, neither can be obtained together. Thus, we find parallels placed in some sections and meridians in others, so that when one position is held, the other is missing. But when we work through the commentaries, it becomes necessary to have knowledge of both at the same time, since in all cases something of the other position is always required. If we do not seek it out specifically in what is recorded about a single place throughout the entire work, many errors will occur; these are things worthy of notice. Furthermore, regarding the position of cities, we shall more easily describe those situated on the coasts, because a certain order is preserved in them. However, the same does not occur in the location of those which are within the interior of the continent, since their sites are rarely noted together, except for a few in which it happens that the longitude and latitude are recorded in the same place.

C ## On the convenience of our work in the mapping of the world.

WThe original features a decorative initial "V" showing fruit and foliage.HEREFORE we have undertaken a double labor: first, that we might maintain the intention which the man [Marinus] held throughout his entire work, except in those matters which have undergone emendation. Next, that those things which were hardly known to him—partly due to a lack of historical knowledge, and partly due to a lack of diligence in the sequence of the tables—might be described as appropriately as possible. Furthermore, we have applied care regarding a more convenient use for all regions, establishing their limits and the particular positions they have in longitude and latitude. Then, concerning the noteworthy peoples of those regions, we note how they are situated among themselves. Regarding the more famous cities, rivers, boundaries, mountains, and all other things which could provide distances worthy of notice on the map itself: this is done by showing how many degrees on the great circle The circumference of the Earth (which consists of three hundred and sixty degrees) a meridian drawn through a location is distant in longitude from the meridian that marks the furthest limit of the West. Truly, regarding latitude, it shows how far the parallel drawn through that location is distant from the equinoctial The Equator along that same meridian. In this way, we will be able to know by example the position of any particular republic and how the sites of those regions are located in relation to each other and to the whole world.

C ## On the inequality of the dimensions of Marinus's map.

EThe original features a decorative initial "V" (rendered here as E for "Either") showing interlacing strapwork and foliage.ITHER description [globe or flat map] possesses something of its own. For marking the world on a sphere original: "spera" takes on the likeness of its proper shape and does not require any sophisticated artifice for this purpose. However, a globe of a size that could contain very many locations—all those which must be placed—is not easily handled; nor can such a work allow the entire figure to be viewed at once. Instead, one must move either the eye or the sphere to see different parts. On a flat surface, however, none of these are impediments. But the required method is that a likeness to the spherical image be maintained, so that the distances established on the plane do not lose their proportion, but are as equalized as possible on the flat surface just as they are in reality. Marinus, considering this of no small importance, even though he set up all sorts of methods for description on a plane, nevertheless seems himself to have used a map form which made the dimensions most unequal. For all the lines which are drawn for the circles of parallels and meridians, he established as straight...