'i56 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. ANNO l685. 



MS. of Pettichius. It is confirmed too by another choice MS. in Greek, of 

 the learned and judicious Mr. Selden. And as much is expressed in the late 

 edition of Ptolemy by Bertius, compared and corrected by Sylburgius, with a 

 manuscript out of the Palatine Library. So that it cannot be doubted that 

 Ptolemy assigned to Byzantium, as our best modern geopraphers have done, 

 the latitude of 43° 5'. And this will farther appear, not only out of his geo- 

 graphy, where it is often expressed, but also out of his Almagest, as the Ara- 

 bians term it, where describing the parallel passing through it, he assigns to it 

 43° 5'. What was the opinion concerning Byzantium of Strabo, preceding 

 Ptolemy, or of Hipparchus preceding Strabo, or of Eratosthenes still earlier, 

 and perhaps more accurate than any of them, their writings not being now 

 extant, unless those of Strabo, cannot be determined ; and as for Strabo, we 

 can expect but little satisfaction ; for his description of places, having more of 

 the historian and philosopher, than the exactness of a mathematician, who 

 strictly respects the position of places, without inquiry after their nature, 

 qualities, and inhabitants, (though the best geography, would be a mixture of 

 them all, as Abulfeda, an Arabian Prince, in his rectification of countries above 

 300 years since has done ;) for these reasons we can expect little satisfaction 

 from Strabo, and less may we hope for from Dionysius Aser, Arrianus, 

 Stephanus Byzantinus, and others. Wherefore next having recourse to the 

 Arabians, who in geography deserve the second place after the Grecians, we 

 find in Nassir Eddin the latitude of Byzantium, which he terms Buzantiya, and 

 Constantiniya, to be 45°; and in Ulug Beg's astronomical tables the same is 

 expressed. Abulfeda also, who chiefly follows four principal authors as his 

 guides, in compiling his geopraphical tables, viz. Alfaras, Albiruny, Hon Saiid 

 Almagraby, and Ptolemy, says that all these place Byzantium in 45° of latitude. 

 And here it may justly be wondered how this diff^erence should arise between 

 the Greek, copies of Ptolemy, and those translated into Arabic by the command 

 ofAlmamon, the learned Calif of Babylon ; for Abulfeda expressly relates, that 

 Ptolemy was first interpreted in his time, that is, in the computation of Alme- 

 cinus in Erpenius's edition, and of Emir Cond a Persian historiographer, more 

 than 800 years since : concerning which Abulfeda writes thus, *' This book 

 (Ptolemy's Greography) was translated out of the Grecian language into the 

 Arabic, for Almamon :" And in this I find, by three fair MSS, of Abulfeda, 

 Byzantium to be constantly placed in 45°, and as constantly in the Greek copies 

 in 43° 5'. But in the Trjoji^E.foi xavMXi of Chrysococca, out of the Persian tables, 

 made about the year 1346 in Scaliger's calculation, it is placed in 45°. To re- 

 concrle the difference between the Greeks and Arabians may seem impossible, 

 «ince the Greek copies agree among themselves, and the Arabic copies 



