Inhaltsangabe
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1837 edition. Excerpt: ...sometimes; but their observations are of little value: and their books are expositions of the theory and its geometrical consequences, without any attempt to compare it with observation. For instance, it does not appear that any one verified the remarkable discovery of the precession, till the time of Ptolemy, 250 years after; nor does the statement of this motion of the heavens appear in the treatises of the intermediate writers; nor does Ptolemy quote a single observation of any person made in this long interval of time; while his references to those of Hipparchus are perpetual; and to those of Aristyllus and Timocharis, and of others, as Conon, who preceded Hipparchus, are not unfrequent.. This Alexandrian period, so inactive and barren in the history of science, was prosperous, civilized, and literary; and many of the works which belong to it are come down to us, though those of Hippar 17 Delamb. A. A. ii. 240. chus are lost. We have the "Uranologion" of Gemmus1", a systematic treatise on astronomy, expounding correctly the Hipparchian theories and their consequences, and containing a good account of the use of the various cycles, which ended in the adoption of the Calippic period. We have likewise "The Circular Theory of the Celestial Bodies" of Cleomedes1", of which the principal part is a developement of the doctrine of the sphere, including the consequences of the globular form of the earth. We have also another work on "Spherics" by Theodosius of Bithynia20, which contains some of the most important propositions of the subject, and has been used as a book of instruction even in modern times. Another writer on the same subject is Menelaus, who lived somewhat later, and whose three books on Spherics...
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