[i299 ] 
tude. Whtve^s London is certainly known to have for the 
Altitude of the Pole, or Latitude of the p!ace,only fi de- 
grees and 32' minutes: and the middle of the J/Ie of 
Wight not to exceed 5-0 degrees and fome minutes. 
But in my judgement Ptolemy is very excufable in 
theie and the like errours, of feveral other places far 
diftant from Alexandria ; feeing he muft for their po- 
fition neceifarily have depended either upon relations 
of Travailers, or obfervations of Mariners, or upon the 
Longitude of the day, meafured in thofe times by Cle- 
pfydra: all which how uncertain they are, and fub- 
je£t unto errour, if fome Celeftiall obfervations be not 
joyned with them, and thofe exadly taken with large 
Inftruments, (in. which kind the Ancients have not 
many, and our times, ("excepting Tycho Brake y Q,nd 
fome of the Arabians)h\xt a few,j I fay no man, that 
hath converfed with modern travailers, and Naviga- 
tors, can be ignoi-ant. Wherefore to excufe thefe 
errours of his ("or rather of others fathered by him) with 
a greater abfurdity, by afTerting the Poles or the World 
fince his time to have changed their fite, andconfe- 
quently all Countries their Latitudes, 2ls Mariana the 
Mafler Copernicus , and others after him have ima- 
gined : or elfe to charge Vrolen^y, being fo excellent 
an Artift, with ignorance, and that even of his own 
Country, as Cluverius hath Aon^,{itovL\ which my ob- 
fervations at Alexandria^ and Memphis, may vindicate 
him,) the former were too greac a flupidity, and the 
latter too great a prefumption. But to return to 
an liland fin £?//(a!2^Z?/Ws comment upon Dionyfm ^^iy^* 
y^icii) of 920 furlongs circuit, where according to Ptolemy 
the Parallel pafling J^/i pod^^, hath 16 degrees ot Lati- 
tude, and fo hath Lindus, and \yiXv(^o^ the cheif Cities 
of the liland; the fame is confirmed by the MS. batr 
where the printed Copy, and Eujiathius read 'inAt^^ssT^Vs 
which ^lercator renders TalyJJus, the MS renders iAijzs-. . 
A- a a a 3 Abtilfeda. 
