VOL. XV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 257 



amongst themselves. The best way to end the dispute, will be, to give credit 

 concerning the latitude of Byzantium neither to the Greeks, nor Arabians. 

 And that I have reason for this assertion, appears by several observations of 

 mine at Constantinople, with a brass sextant of above 4 feet radius. Where, 

 at the summer solstice, taking the meridian altitude of the sun, I found the 

 latitude to be 41° 6'.* And in this latitude in my chart I have placed Byzan- 

 tium, and not in that either of the Greeks or Arabians. From which obser- 

 vation, being of singular use in the rectification of geography, it will follow, 

 that all maps for the north-east of Europe, and of Asia, adjoining on the 

 Bosphorus Thracius, the Pontus Euxinus, and much farther, are to be cor- 

 rected; and consequently the situation of most cities in Asia, properly so called, 

 are to be brought more southerly than those of Ptolemy, by almost 2 whole de- 

 grees, and than those of the Arabians, by almost 4. 



Concerning Rhodes, it may be presumed, that, having been the mother and 

 nurse of so many eminent mathematicians, and having long flourished in navi- 

 gation, by the direction of these, and by the vicinity of the Phoenicians, they 

 could not be ignorant of the precise latitude of their country, and that from 

 them Ptolemy might receive a true information ; though it cannot be denied, 

 but that in places more remote from Alexandria, he has much erred. 



Now, according to Ptolemy, the parallel passing through Rhodes, is in 36 

 degrees of latitude. But Abulfeda, in some copies, places the island Rhodes, 

 in the latitude of 37° 40' : and the geography of Said Ibn Aly Algiorgany, in 

 37 degrees, if it be not by a transposition in the MS. of the numerical letters 

 in Arabic 37 for 36, which by reason of their similitude are often confounded 

 in Arabic MSS. By my observations, however, under the walls of the city 

 Rhodes, with a fair brass astrolabe of Gemma Frisius, of 14 inches diameter, I 

 found the latitude to be 37° 50'. A larger instrument I durst not venture to 

 carry on shore in a place of so much jealousy. And this latitude in the chart I 

 have assigned to the city Rhodes, better agreeing with the Arabians, than with 

 Ptolemy, whom I know not how to excuse. 



Francisci JVillughbeii Armig. de Historia Piscium Libri quatuor, Jussu el Sump- 

 tibtis Sodetatis Regime Lond. edit. Tolum Opus recognovit, coaptavit, supplevit, 

 Librum etiam primum et secundum integros adjecit Johannes Rains h Societate 

 Regia, Oxonii i Theatro Sheldoniano, l686. N" 178, p. 1301. 

 The work is divided into 4 books. The first treats of fishes in general : the 



* The most modem and correct accounts now make the latitude of Constantinople to be 41" I' 24", 

 and its longitude 28° 5i' 49" east of Greenwich 

 VOL. III. L L 



