Claudius Ptolemaeus; Giovanni Antonio Magini — Geographiae universae tum veteris, tum novae (1597)

zon zone. The islands of Sinda according to Ptolemy are today called Celebes, Gilolo, and Ambon. There are those who maintain that the Gangetic Gulf is the modern Gulf of Bengal: but where will these people find in the Gulf of Bengal the islands described by Ptolemy in the Gangetic Gulf?

Ptolemy mentions a fourth voyage from Marinus, from the city of Sada to the city of Tamala, covering 3500 stadia ancient units of distance toward the winter sunrise southeast, which, according to recent maps, is almost toward the summer sunrise northeast and toward the Caecias northeast wind: for the site of the city of Tamala seems to be now where the city of Quoqueam is, or nearby. From this number of stadia, Ptolemy rejects one third due to the inequality of the journey, and 2330 stadia remain for the direct distance between the said places. From this, since he thinks it inclines toward the southeast original: "ad Eurum", he again removes a sixth part by the same reasoning he observed in the second voyage, and finally, a portion of the parallel drawn through Sada is left, indicating the distance between the meridian of each place as 1940 stadia, which corresponds to 3 degrees and 50 minutes.

Ptolemy reviews a fifth and final voyage from Marinus, from Tamala to the Golden Chersonese, of 1600 stadia toward the winter sunrise, which he corrects and contracts by the same reasoning to 900 stadia, which provide one degree and 48 minutes. But if we relate this to the recent description, we will see it was not toward the winter sunrise: but rather toward almost the equinoctial sunrise: for we hold with Mercator that the Golden Chersonese is the island of Japan: and not the region of Malacca, and that Ptolemy mistakenly took it for a peninsula. Thus, from these five particular distances reduced into one sum, the length between the Cory promontory and the Golden Chersonese emerges as 34 degrees and 48 minutes.

On the fourteenth chapter.

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That this part of the known Eastern world was described by Ptolemy and Marinus based on a very probable but fallacious conjecture is apparent from the previous chapter as well as the present one. In these, these excellent men, relying on certain voyages poorly reported by merchants and writers, delineated both Indias, Sina, and the vast regions of Serica in such an absurd and improper way. Since the aforementioned men situated the Golden Chersonese incorrectly, it is no wonder if the regions and places that follow deviate so much from the truth, as they add error upon error. What, therefore, could be imagined more absurd than that the region of Sinae lies under the equator, and Cattigara beyond the equator to the south, when in our own times the Eastern and Indian Ocean has been traveled so many times, and no such part of a continent has ever been found? It follows, therefore, that a most serious error occurred, as the ancient authors placed these regions poorly by bending them toward the South, when they should have extended them toward the North and the East, as the recent description shows. Let us see now with what conjectures Ptolemy described this remaining land to the East beyond the Golden Chersonese. Ptolemy says that Marinus reports that Alexander wrote that the land from there turns away from the South, and those who sail along it for 20 days arrive at the city of Zabas, and from Zabas sailing toward the South, and more to the left for some days, they reach Cattigara. Thus far Ptolemy from Marinus. That the remainder of the continental land from the Golden Chersonese is turned away from the South, that is, that it recedes toward the North, as Alexander writes, is clear not only up to the city of Zaba but also up to Cattigara and beyond:

beyond: even though Ptolemy extends the coast from the Great Gulf to Cattigara and reflects it from the North to the South, even beyond the equator by nearly 9 degrees, moved by those words that those sailing from Zaba toward the South, and more to the left for some days, seek Cattigara. This is certainly not in agreement with the truth. Therefore, so that Ptolemy could discover the interval of longitude from the Golden Chersonese to Cattigara, he makes a comparison of this most uncertain and obscure voyage with two others, which he mentioned in the eighth chapter. From this, he concludes that the longitude between the Golden Peninsula and Cattigara is 17 degrees and one sixth. If to these are added 34 degrees and 48 minutes, the distance between the Cory promontory and the Golden Chersonese, the distance between the Cory promontory and Cattigara will emerge as 52 and 1/3 degrees. If the Cory promontory is distant from the meridian of the Fortunate Islands by 123 degrees, and a little more if these degrees are added together, the total length of the land from the Fortunate Islands to Cattigara will be 177 degrees. But because the metropolis of the Sinae, which is even further East than Cattigara, is the last known land to the East, he accepts the total length of the entire known world as 180 parts, which makes twelve hours of interval.

Furthermore, I have not been able to explore the site of the city of Zaba with certainty in modern maps. But Mercator locates the station of Cattigara in the kingdom of Tenduc, in which the metropolis of the city of Tenduc is located, which appears to be the metropolis of Thine or Sinae of Ptolemy. And the site of Cattigara falls under the 38th degree of latitude: from which it differs infinitely from Ptolemy's description, who places it at the 9th degree of southern latitude. Similarly, the Great Gulf, which Ptolemy thinks extends from South to North, more recent geographers produce from East to West and call it the Sea of China: and in this way, they turn this whole Eastern world toward the North, as recent voyages teach, and not toward the South, as Ptolemy falsely supposed.

On the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters.

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THUS FAR Ptolemy has taken pains to correct the latitude and longitude of the entire known world from Marinus: now, however, in the 15th chapter, he disputes against the same Marinus concerning the longitudes and latitudes of certain particular places, which he provided in his various works. He shows that he thought contrary and diverse things in these, and erred gravely, if indeed Marinus himself sometimes places two opposite locations, or those situated in one and the same meridian, under one and the same parallel, and vice versa. Ptolemy reviews several such inconsistencies, which we have not decided to examine, since this contributes little to the understanding of the art, especially since the text itself is easy enough to understand by itself.

Furthermore, in the sixteenth chapter, Ptolemy also criticizes and corrects Marinus concerning the boundaries of several regions and principalities wrongly annotated by him, where he enumerates certain errors regarding the boundaries of Mysia, Thrace, Italy, Pannonia, etc.

On the seventeenth chapter.

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Ptolemy shows in this chapter that Marinus disagrees with the histories and accounts of certain voyages handed down by his contemporaries, and these indeed were merchants and ship captains, who sailed from Arabia Felix toward the East along the entire coast of India, and also from the Aromatic coast to the Prasum promontory toward the South.