if I had not then been pressed by the narrowness of time and the scarcity of my books. However, how much labor I have sustained in elaborating this commentary, and in describing regions and provinces from diverse most approved authors throughout this whole past six years, men of sound mind will easily judge, who will have compared these of mine with the similar writings of others: although I am not unaware that certain things are liable to observations and correction. For even if one works assiduously in the more diligent investigation of truth, nevertheless no diligence can be enough to obtain the peak of this discipline. I confess besides that I have been unable to adapt modern things entirely to the ancients, and to exhibit a reconciliation of ancient and recent names. Which neither have others done hitherto on account of the injury of times, and insurmountable difficulties in this business. And those who have performed this more copiously in the commentaries of Ptolemaeus before us, certainly they have acted too boldly, and relied upon fallacious conjectures alone, so that it is not to be wondered at if they wander from the truth most frequently.
Farewell, and provide spirit for us for other labors, which indeed you will do, if you receive this present volume of universal Geography with a kind and candid mind.

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IO. ANTONIUS MAGINUS

OF PADUA

ON THE FIRST BOOK OF THE GEOGRAPHY

OF CLAUDIUS PTOLEMAEUS

COMMENTARIES AND

ANNOTATIONS.

About to expound the Geography of Cl. Ptolemaeus, we have thought it worth the labor to propose certain chapters first, which are very opportune for a clearer understanding of this discipline; namely, from where this name Geography arose: What Geography is: how it is divided: what kind of subject or matter it is, of which Geography treats: what its utilities are: who the authors of this discipline were: who Cl. Ptolemaeus, the author of these books, was; and finally, what his scope, or intention, was in these books.

Origin of the name Geography.

Geography is a Greek term, which consists of two words, namely "Gea," which signifies earth to the Greeks, and "Grapho," which sounds "I write," or "I describe." Therefore, this name "Geography" signifies nothing other than the description of the earth. It must be noted, however, that earth here should not be taken in its proper and strict signification, namely as one of the four elements; but for "earth" here must be understood the globe of earth and water together, which we commonly call the world, which indeed is inhabited by living beings. Geography is therefore, according to the derivation of the name, that art, or discipline, which describes the world, or the greater portion of those things which are in it, such as Provinces, Cities, Towns, Seas, Rivers, Lakes, Mountains, Promontories, and other principal parts of the world itself; by studying so that all these may be delineated both according to the habit and position which they have towards one another, and also in respect to the sky, as will be said more copiously below.