The Almagest (Greek: Μαθηματικὴ σύνταξις, ‘Mathematical Composition’; Arabic: al-Majisṭī, ‘The Greatest’) is generally considered the culmination of Greek astronomy and the single most important astronomical work until Copernicus’s De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543). It provides comprehensive mathematical models explaining all celestial movements in a geocentric universe and offers all the necessary numerical data to calculate the positions of the seven planets for any time, past, present and future. The Almagest comprises 13 books dealing respectively with cosmology and trigonometry (Book I), spherical astronomy (II), the Sun (III), the Moon (IV-V), eclipses (VI), the fixed stars (VII-VIII), Mercury (IX), Venus and Mars (X), Jupiter and Saturn (XI), retrogradation (XII) and planetary latitudes (XIII). The Almagest was translated several times into Arabic. Three of these translations are extant, all dating from the ninth century, by al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn Maṭar (A.1.1), by Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn in a revision by Thābit ibn Qurra (A.1.2), and by Thābit ibn Qurra (A.1.3). There are nine extant Latin translations made between the twelfth and the seventeenth century, two from the Arabic (A.1.2, A.1.3) and seven from the Greek (A.1.1, A.1.4, A.1.5, A.1.6, A.1.7, A.1.8, A.1.9). Only three of these Latin translations include the complete text (A.1.1, A.1.2, A.1.4).

Bibl. General: J.-B.-J. Delambre, Histoire de l’astronomie ancienne, Paris, 1817, II, 67-410; F. Boll, ‘Studien über Claudius Ptolemäus. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der griechischen Philosophie und Astrologie’, Jahrbücher für Classische Philologie, Suppl. 21 (1894), 49-244: 66-76; J. L. Heiberg, Claudii Ptolemaei opera quae exstant omnia, II: Opera astronomica minora, Leipzig, 1907, xviii-cxlix; O. Neugebauer, A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy, Berlin-New York, 1975, I, 19-261, and II, 836-838; R. R. Newton, The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy, Baltimore, 1977; N. M. Swerdlow, ‘Ptolemy on Trial’, The American Scholar 48 (1979), 523-531; O. Gingerich, ‘Was Ptolemy a Fraud?’, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 21 (1980), 253-266; R. R. Newton, The Origins of Ptolemy’s Astronomical Parameters, Baltimore, 1982; N. W. Swerdlow, O. Neugebauer, Mathematical Astronomy in Copernicus’s De revolutionibus, New York, 1984, I, 33-41; C. Wilson, ‘The Sources of Ptolemy’s Parameters’, Journal for the History of Astronomy 15 (1984), 37-47; R. R. Newton, The Origins of Ptolemy’s Astronomical Tables, Baltimore, 1985; J. P. Britton, Models and Precision. The Quality of Ptolemy’s Observations and Parameters, New York, 1992; J. Evans, ‘Ptolemy Indicted Again’, Journal for the History of Astronomy 24 (1993), 145-147; L. Taub, Ptolemy’s Universe. The Natural Philosophical and Ethical Foundations of Ptolemy’s Astronomy, Chicago, 1993; G. Van Brummelen, Mathematical Tables in Ptolemy’s Almagest, PhD dissertation, Simon Fraser University, 1993; B. R. Goldstein, ‘Saving the Phenomena: The Background to Ptolemy’s Planetary Theory’, Journal for the History of Astronomy 28 (1997), 1-12; J. Evans, ‘The Origins of Ptolemy’s Cosmos’, in Cosmology Through Time. Ancient and Modern Cosmologies in the Mediterranean Area, eds S. Colafrancesco, G. Giobbi, Milano, 2003, 123-132; A. Jones, ‘Ptolemy’s Mathematical Models and Their Meaning’, in Mathematics and the Historian’s Craft: The Kenneth O. May Lectures, eds M. Kinyon, G. van Brummelen, New York, 2005, 23-42; B. R. Goldstein, ‘What’s New in Ptolemy’s Almagest?’, Nuncius 22 (2007), 261-285; R. Fitzpatrick, A Modern Almagest. An Updated Version of Ptolemy’s Model of the Solar System, The University of Texas at Austin, 2010 [published online]; O. Pedersen, A Survey of the Almagest. With Annotation and New Commentary by Alexander Jones, New York-Dordrecht, 2011 (first edition 1974); G. Aujac, Claude Ptolémée: Astronome, astrologue, géographe, Paris, 2012, third edition (first edition 1993), 23-67; C. Tolsa, Claudius Ptolemy and Self-Promotion. A Study on Ptolemy’s Intellectual Milieu in Roman Alexandria, PhD dissertation, Universitat de Barcelona, 2013, 214-222, 270-301 and passim; A. Tihon, ‘Alexandrian Astronomy in the 2^nd Century AD: Ptolemy and His Times’, in The Alexandrian Tradition. 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Schumacher, Untersuchungen über die ptolemäische Theorie der unteren Planeten, Münster, 1917; A. Rome, ‘Le problème de l’équation du temps chez Ptolémée’, Annales de la Société Scientifique de Bruxelles 59 (1939), 211-224; L. O. Kattsoff, ‘Ptolemy and Scientific Method: A Note on the History of an Idea’, Isis 38 (1947), 18-22; A. Rome, ‘La prosneuse des éclipses dans l’astronomie ptolémaïque. Note preliminaire’, L’Antiquité Classique 17 (1948), 509-518; B. L. van der Waerden, ‘Drei umstrittene Mondfinsternisse bei Ptolemaios’, Museum Helveticum 15 (1958), 106-109; A. Czwalina, ‘Ptolemaeus, die Bahnen der Planeten Venus und Merkur’, Centaurus 6 (1959), 1-35; V. Petersen, O. Schmidt, ‘The Determination of the Longitude of the Apogee of the Orbit of of the Sun According to Hipparchus and Ptolemy’, Centaurus 12 (1967), 73-96; W. Petri, ‘Zum ersten Buch des Almagest’, Rechenpfennige. Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Kurt Vogel zum 80. Geburtstag am 30. 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Toomer, ‘Hipparchus’ Empirical Basis for His Lunar Mean Motions: A Historical Footnote to Olaf Pedersen, A Survey of the Almagest, 161-4’, Centaurus 24 (1980), 97-109; B. R. Goldstein, ‘Problems Raised by Ptolemy’s Lunar Tables’, Journal for the History of Astronomy 13 (1982), 195-205; R. R. Newton, ‘The Authenticity of Ptolemy’s Star Data – II’, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 24 (1983), 27-35; J. Evans, ‘Fonction et origine probable du point équant de Ptolémée’, Revue d’Histoire des Sciences 37 (1984), 193-213; J. Evans, ‘On the Function and the Probable Origin of Ptolemy’s Equant’, American Journal of Physics 52 (1984), 1080-1089; C. M. Taisbak, ‘Eleven Eighty-Thirds. Ptolemy’s Reference to Eratosthenes in Almagest 1.12’, Centaurus 27 (1984), 165-172; K. P. Moesgaard, ‘In Chase of an Origin for the Mean Planetary Motions in Ptolemy’s Almagest’, in From Ancient Omens to Statistical Mechanics. Essays on the Exact Sciences Presented to Asger Aaboe, eds J. L. 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Use and Criticism of His Work from Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century, ed. A. Jones, Dordrecht-Heidelberg-London-New York, 2010, 11-44; F. Acerbi, ‘Tolomeo in Laurenziana: Il primo papiro della Psephophoria (PL II/33)’, Analecta Papyrologica 26 (2014), 37-73; F. Acerbi, ‘Traces of Menelaus’ Sphaerica in Greek Scholia to the Almagest’, SCIAMVS 16 (2015), 91-124; A. Tihon, ‘Remarques sur les scolies anciennes de l’Almageste’, Almagest 6 (2015), 5-41; F. Acerbi, ‘Byzantine Recensions of Greek Mathematical and Astronomical Texts: A Survey’, Estudios Bizantinos 4 (2016), 133-213: 171-172, 179-180 and 196-204; F. Acerbi, ‘The Mathematical Scholia Vetera to Almagest I.10-15. With a Critical Edition of the Diagrams and an Explanation of Their Symmetry Properties’, SCIAMVS 18 (2017), 133-259; F. Acerbi, ‘Riscrivere Tolomeo a Bisanzio. Concezione ed appropriazione delle Tabulae Novae di Isacco Argiro’, Bollettino dei Classici 44 (2023), 1-112. In Syriac: P. Kunitzsch, ‘Über einige Spuren der syrischen Almagestübersetzung’, in ΠΡΙΣΜΑΤΑ. Naturwissenschaftsgeschichtliche Studien. Festschrift für Willy Hartner, eds. Y. Maeyama, W. G. Saltzer, Wiesbaden, 1977, 203-210 (reprinted in P. Kunitzsch, Stars and Numbers. Astronomy and Mathematics in the Medieval Arab and Western Worlds, Aldershot, 2004, III); E. Villey, ‘Syriac Astronomical Texts (500-700 CE): Christian Voices Defending Ptolemaic Astronomy’, in New Themes, New Styles in the Eastern Mediterranean: Christian, Jewish, and Islamic Encounters, 5^th-8^th Centuries, eds H. Amirav, F. Celia, Leuven, 2017, 205-232. In Pahlavi: S. Buscherini, ‘The Translation of Almagest in Pahlavi: Zero in Persian Numerical System’, in Non licet stare caelestibus. Studies on Astronomy and its History offered to Salvo De Meis, eds A. Panaino, E. Bacchi, S. Buscherini, P. Ognibene, Milano-Udine, 2014, 137-150. In Sanskrit: D. Pingree, ‘Indian Reception of Muslim Versions of Ptolemaic Astronomy’, in Tradition, Transmission, Transformation. Proceedings of Two Conferences on Pre-Modern Science Held at the University of Oklahoma, eds F. J. Ragep, S. P. Ragep, Leiden-New York-Köln, 1996, 471-485 (reprinted in Pathways into the Study of Ancient Sciences. Selected Essays by David Pingree, eds I. Pingree, J. Steele, Philadelphia, 2014, 225-239); D. W. Duke, ‘The Equant in India: The Mathematical Basis of Ancient Indian Planetary Models’, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 59 (2005), 563-576. In Arabic (see also C.1.1-2): M. Steinschneider, ‘Die arabischen Bearbeiter des Almagest’, Bibliotheca Mathematica Neue Folge 6 (1892), 53-62; F. Rosenthal, ‘Al-Kindī and Ptolemy’, Studi orientalistici in onore di Giorgio Levi della Vida, Roma, 1956, II, 436-456; P. Kunitzsch, Der Almagest – Die Syntaxis Mathematica des Claudius Ptolemäus in arabisch-lateinischer Überlieferung, Wiesbaden, 1974; P. Kunitzsch, Ibn aṣ-Ṣalāḥ: Zur Kritik der Koordinatenüberlieferung im Sternkatalog des Almagest. Arabischer Text nebst deutscher Übersetzung, Einleitung und Anhang, Göttingen, 1975 (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse, Dritte Folge 94); P. Kunitzsch, ‘Arabic Criticism of Ancient Greek Traditions: Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ and the Almagest’, in Proceedings of the First International Symposium for the History of Arabic Science. April 5-12, 1976, eds A. Y. al Hassan, G. Karmi, N. Namnun, Aleppo, 1978, II, 85-90; F. Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, VI: Astronomie, Leiden, 1978, 88-94 (no. I); A. I. Sabra, ‘An Eleventh-Century Refutation of Ptolemy’s Planetary Theory’, in Science and History. Studies in Honor of Edward Rosen, eds E. Hilfstein, P. Czartoryski, F. D. Grande, Wrocław-Warszawa, 1978 (Studia Copernicana, XVI), 117-131 (reprinted in A. I. Sabra, Optics, Astronomy, and Logic. Studies in Arabic Science and Philosophy, Aldershot, 1994, XIV); G. Saliba, ‘Ibn Sīnā and Abū ʿUbayd al-Jūzjānī: The Problem of the Ptolemaic Equant’, Journal for the History of Arabic Science 4 (1980), 376-403 (reprinted in G. Saliba, A History of Arabic Astronomy. Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam, New York-London, 1994, 85-112); A. I. Sabra, ‘The Andalusian Revolt Against Ptolemy: Averroes and al-Biṭrūjī’, in Transformation and Tradition in the Sciences. Essays in Honor of I. Bernard Cohen, Cambridge, 1984, 133-153 (reprinted in A. I. Sabra, Optics, Astronomy, and Logic. Studies in Arabic Science and Philosophy, Aldershot, 1994, XIV); P. Kunitzsch, Der Sternkatalog des Almagest. Die arabisch-mittelalterliche Tradition, 3 vols, Wiesbaden, 1986-1991; G. Saliba, ‘The Role of the Almagest Commentaries in Medieval Arabic Astronomy: A Preliminary Survey of Ṭūsī’s Redaction of Ptolemy’s Almagest’, Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences 37 (1987), 3-20 (reprinted in G. Saliba, A History of Arabic Astronomy. Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam, New York-London, 1994, 143-160); G. Saliba, ‘A Medieval Arabic Reform of the Ptolemaic Lunar Model’, Journal for the History of Astronomy 20 (1989), 157-164; P. Kunitzsch, ‘Die Überlieferung des Almagest, griechisch-arabisch-lateinisch’, in Lingua restituta Orientalis. Festgabe für Julius Assfalg, ed. M. Görg, Wiesbaden, 1990, 203-210: 205-207; G. Saliba, ‘Al-Qushjī’s Reform of the Ptolemaic Model for Mercury’, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 3 (1993), 161-203; P. Kunitzsch, ‘Die astronomische Terminologie im Almagest’, in La formation du vocabulaire scientifique et intellectuel dans le monde arabe, ed. D. Jacquart, Turnhout, 1994, 55-65 (reprinted in P. Kunitzsch, Stars and Numbers. Astronomy and Mathematics in the Medieval Arab and Western Worlds, Aldershot, 2004, IV); G. Saliba, ‘A Sixteenth-Century Arabic Critique of Ptolemaic Astronomy: The Work of Shams al-Dīn al-Khafrī’, Journal for the History of Astronomy 25 (1994), 15-38; G. Saliba, ‘Early Arabic Critique of Ptolemaic Cosmology: A Ninth-Century Text on the Motion of the Celestial Spheres’, Journal for the History of Astronomy 25 (1994), 115-141; D. L. Voss, Ibn al-Haytham’s Doubts Concerning Ptolemy. A Translation and Commentary, PhD dissertation, University of Chicago, 1985; P. Kunitzsch, ‘The Role of al-Andalus in the Transmission of Ptolemy’s Planisphaerium and Almagest’, Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 10 (1995-1996), 147-155 (reprinted in P. Kunitzsch, Stars and Numbers. Astronomy and Mathematics in the Medieval Arab and Western Worlds, Aldershot, 2004, VII); J. Lay, ‘L’abrégé de l’Almageste. Un inédit d’Averroès en version hébraïque’, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 6 (1996), 23-61; G. Saliba, ‘A Redeployment of Mathematics in a Sixteenth-Century Arabic Critique of Ptolemaic Astronomy’, in Perspectives arabes et médiévales sur la tradition scientifique et philosophique grecque. Actes du colloque de la SIHSPAI (Société internationale d’histoire des sciences et de la philosophie arabes et islamiques), Paris, 31 mars-3 avril 1993, eds A. Hasnawi, A. Elamrani-Jamal, M. Aouad, Leuven-Paris, 1997, 105-122; G. Saliba, ‘Critiques of Ptolemaic Astronomy in Islamic Spain’, Al-Qanṭara 22 (1999), 3-25; P. Kunitzsch, ‘A Hitherto Unknown Arabic Manuscript of the Almagest’, Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 14 (2001), 31-37 (reprinted in P. Kunitzsch, Stars and Numbers. Astronomy and Mathematics in the Medieval Arab and Western Worlds, Aldershot, 2004, V); J. Samsό, ‘Ibn al-Haytham and Jābir b. Aflaḥ’s Criticism of Ptolemy’s Determi­nation of the Parameters of Mercury’, Suhayl 2 (2001), 199-225 (reprinted in J. Samsό, Astrometeorologίa y astrologίa medievales, Barcelona, 2008, II, VII); J. Bellver, ‘On Jābir b. Aflāḥ’s Criticism of Ptolemy’s Almagest’, in A Shared Legacy. Islamic Science East and West. Homage to Professor J. M. Millàs Villacrosa, eds E. Calvo Labarta et al., Barcelona, 2008, 181-189; H. Tahiri, ‘The Birth of Scientific Controversies. The Dynamics of the Arabic Tradition and its Impact on the Development of Science: Ibn al-Haytham’s Challenge of Ptolemy’s Almagest’, in The Unity of Science in the Arabic Tradition. Science, Logic, Epistemology and their Interactions, eds S. Rahman, T. Street, H. Tahiri, Dordrecht, 2008, 183-225; J. Bellver, ‘El lugar del Iṣlāḥ al-Maŷisṭī de Ŷābir b. Aflaḥ en la llamada «Rebelión andalusí contra la astronomía ptolemaica»’, Al-Qanṭara 30 (2009), 83-136; E. Nicolai, La tradizione greco-latina e arabo-latina del I libro dell’Almagesto. Saggio di analisi e traduzione, PhD dissertation, Università di Padova, 2010; J. Thomann, ‘Ein al-Fārābī zugeschriebener Kommentar zum Almagest (HS. Tehran Mağlis 6531)’, Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 19 (2010-2011), 37-76; P. Kunitzsch, ‘Translators’ Errors in the Almagest, Arabic and Latin’, in Adorare caelestia, gubernare terrena: Atti del colloquio internazionale in onore di Paolo Lucentini (Napoli, 6-7 Novembre 2007), eds P. Arfé, I. Caiazzo, A. Sannino, Turnhout, 2011, 283-293; D. Grupe, ‘The ‘Thābit-Version’ of Ptolemy’s Almagest in MS Dresden Db.87’, Suhayl 11 (2012), 147-153; A. M. Gamini, H. M. Hamedani, ‘Al-Shīrāzī and the Empirical Origin of Ptolemy’s Equant in His Model of the Superior Planets’, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 23 (2013), 47-67; M. Forcada, ‘Ibn Bājja’s Discourse on Cosmology (Kalām fī l-hayʾa) and the “Revolt” Against Ptolemy’, Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 20-21 (2012-2014), 64-167; S. M. Mozaffari, ‘Bīrūnī’s Examination of the Path of the Centre of the Epicycle in Ptolemy’s Lunar Model’, Journal for the History of Astronomy 45 (2014), 123-127; S. M. Mozaffari, ‘Ptolemaic Eccentricity of the Superior Planets in the Medieval Islamic Period’, in Scientific Cosmopolitanism and Local Cultures: Religions, Ideologies, Societies. Proceedings of the 5^th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science (Athens, 1-3 November 2012), ed. G. Katsiampoura, Athens, 2014, 23-30; J. Thomann, ‘Al-Fārābīs Kommentar zum Almagest in sekundärer Überlieferung bei Ibn aṣ-Ṣalāḥ: Ein vorläufiger Bericht’, Asia 69 (2015), 99-113; S. Sela, ‘Al-Farghānī on the 48 Ptolemaic Constellations: A Newly Discovered Text in Hebrew Translation’, Aleph 16 (2016), 249-365; J. Thomann, ‘Terminological Fingerprints in a Commentary on the Almagest Attributed to al-Fārābī’, in Arabic and Islamic Studies in Europe and Beyond. Proceedings of the 26th Congress of the Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants, Basel 2012, eds M. Reinkowski, M. Winet, Leuven, 2016, 301-312; E. Nicolai, ‘L’Almagesto arabo: alcune note sulle traduzioni greco-arabe di al-Ḥağğāğ e di Isḥāq b. Ḥunayn-Ṯābit b. Qurra’, Quaderni di Studi Arabi 12 (2017), 87-102; M. J. Parra, ‘A List of Arabic Manuscripts of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s Taḥrīr al-Majisṭī’, Suhayl 16-17 (2018-2019), 251-322; M. Americo, An Analysis of Ninth-Century Reception of Claudius Ptolemy’s Astronomy in the Arabic Tradition, PhD dissertation, New York University, 2019; D. Grupe, ‘Thābit ibn Qurra’s Version of the Almagest and Its Reception in Arabic Astronomical Commentaries (based on the presentation held at the Warburg Institute, London, 5^th November 2015)’, in Ptolemy’s Science of the Stars in the Middle Ages, eds D. Juste, B. van Dalen, D. N. Hasse, C. Burnett, Turnhout, 2020, 139-157; D. Grupe, ‘Manuscript Jaipur 20 and the Arabic Translation of Ptolemy’s Almagest by Thābit ibn Qurra’, in The First International Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin Symposium on History of Science in Islam Proceeding Book, eds F. Başar, M. Kaçar, M. C. Kaya, A. Z. Furat, Istanbul, 2020, 139-148; Y. T. Langermann, ‘Revamping Ptolemy’s Proof for the Sphericity of the Heavens: Three Arabic Commentaries on Almagest I.3’, in Ptolemy’s Science of the Stars in the Middle Ages, eds D. Juste, B. van Dalen, D. N. Hasse, C. Burnett, Turnhout, 2020, 159-180; J. Thomann, ‘The Oldest Translation of the Almagest Made for al-Maʾmūn by al-Ḥasan ibn Quraysh: A Text Fragment in Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ’s Critique on al-Fārābī’s Commentary’, in Ptolemy’s Science of the Stars in the Middle Ages, eds D. Juste, B. van Dalen, D. N. Hasse, C. Burnett, Turnhout, 2020, 117-138; J. Bellver, ‘Looted Libraries and Legitimation Policies: Ptolemy, the Library of al-Arašī and the Translation Movement in Toledo’, Arabica 68 (2021), 628-661; P. Hullmeine, ‘Correcting Ptolemy and Aristotle: Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ on Mistakes in the Almagest, On the Heavens, and Posterior Analytics’, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 32 (2022), 201-246; S. Nikfahm-Khubravan, The Reception of Ptolemy’s Latitude Theories in Islamic Astronomy, PhD dissertation, McGill University, 2022. In Hebrew: M. Steinschneider, Die hebraeischen Uebersetzungen des Mittelalters und die Juden als Dolmetscher. Ein Beitrag zur Literaturgeschichte des Mittelalters, Berlin, 1893, II, 520-525; M. Zonta, ‘La tradizione ebraica dell’Almagesto di Tolomeo’, Henoch 15 (1993), 325-350. In Latin (see also A.1.1-9 and C.1): C. Kren, ‘A Medieval Objection to “Ptolemy”’, The British Journal for the History of Science 4 (1969), 378-393; J. L. Mancha, ‘A Note on Copernicus’ ‘Correction’ of Ptolemy’s Mean Synodic Month’, Suhayl 3 (2002-2003), 221-229; N. M. Swerdlow, ‘Tycho, Longomontanus, and Kepler on Ptolemy’s Solar Observations and Theory, Precession of the Equinoxes, and Obliquity of the Ecliptic’, in Ptolemy in Perspective. Use and Criticism of His Work from Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century, ed. A. Jones, Dordrecht-Heidelberg-London-New York, 2010, 151-202; A.-P. Segonds, C. Luna, ‘The Greek Text of Ptolemy, Almagest XIII, as a Source of Book VI of Copernicus’s De revolutionibus’, Journal for the History of Astronomy 44 (2013), 413-427; R. M. Nugayev, ‘The Ptolemy-Copernicus Transition: Intertheoric Context’, Almagest 4 (2013), 97-119; D. N. Hasse, ‘Averroes’ Critique of Ptolemy and Its Reception by John of Jandun and Agostino Nifo’, in Averroes’ Natural Philosophy and Its Reception in the Latin West, ed. J. J. M. Bakker, Leuven, 2015, 69-88; C. C. Carman, G. L. Recio, ‘Ptolemaic Planetary Models and Kepler’s Laws’, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 73 (2019), 39-124; J. Martínez Gázquez, ‘The Importance of Ptolemy and the Almagest in the Work of the Translators of Arabic Science in the Middle Ages’, Imago Temporis. Medium Aevum 13 (2019), 97-113; C. C. Carman, ‘A Ptolemaic Lunar Model of the 17^th Century: François Viète and His First Lunar Model’, Journal for the History of Astronomy 54 (2023), 375-403; I. Malara, ‘Galileo as a Reader of Ptolemy: Notes on the Occasion of the 400^th Anniversary of Il Saggiatore (1623)’, Rivista di Storia della Filosofia 3 (2023), 465-473; M. E. Schwab, ‘Rome as “Part of the Heavens”? Leon Battista Alberti’s Descriptio Urbis Romae (ca. 1450) and Ptolemy’s Almagest’, Journal of the History of Ideas 84 (2023), 1-27; I. Malara, Galileo and the Almagest c. 1589-1592: How Ptolemaic Astronomy Influenced Galileo’s Early Writings on Motion, Cham, 2024.

Modern ed. The editio princeps of the Greek text was prepared by Simon Grynaeus, who published it on Johannes Walderus’s press in Basel in 1538, together with an appended part containing Theon of Alexandria’s commentary on the Almagest, whose edition had been prepared by Joachim Camerarius (VD16 P 5200). The exemplar used for the Almagest is now MS Paris, BnF, gr. 2393 (see J. L. Heiberg, Claudii Ptolemaei opera quae exstant omnia, II: Opera astronomica minora, Leipzig, 1907, xxv and lxxiii). The authoritative critical edition of the Greek text is J. L. Heiberg, Claudii Ptolemaei opera quae exstant omnia, I: Syntaxis mathematica, 2 vols, Leipzig, 1898-1903 (with 'Prolegomena' in J. L. Heiberg, Claudii Ptolemaei opera quae exstant omnia, II: Opera astronomica minora, Leipzig, 1907, xviii-cxlix). Heiberg’s text has been translated into German by K. Manitius, Des Claudius Ptolemäus Handbuch der Astronomie, 2 vols, Leipzig, 1912-1913; and into English by G. J. Toomer, Ptolemy’s Almagest, London, 1984 (new edition Princeton, 1998). A former edition, together with a French translation, was made by N. Halma, Composition mathématique de Claude Ptolémée traduite pour la première fois du grec en français, sur les manuscrits originaux de la Bibliothèque Impériale de Paris, 2 vols, Paris, 1813-1816 (on the basis of several MSS and early printed editions available at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, but without critical apparatus). New French translation by P. Paquette, L’Almageste de Ptolémée, Les Coteaux, 2023 (on the basis of all existing editions and translations, as well as several Greek MSS). The Arabic and Latin translations are for the most part unavailable in a modern edition, with the exceptions of the star catalogue (VII.5-VIII.1), whose Arabic and Latin versions have received a critical edition by Kunitzsch, Der Sternkatalog; of Book I, whose several versions have been edited by Nicolai, La tradizione (the two main Arabic versions and Latin versions A.1.1, A.1.2 and A.1.3); and of the partial Latin translations A.1.3, edited by Grupe, and A.1.8, edited by De Vivo.