Note 55 — Chapter II · THE ROMAN PROVINCE IN SCOTLAND.

The author has felt himself obliged to enter somewhat into detail regarding the Roman geography of Scotland, as the subject has been so much perverted by our best writers, owing to their unfortunate adoption of the spurious work of Richard of Cirencester. It is time that the credit of Ptolemy should be restored, and it is impossible for any one to compare his statements with the actual face of the country, without being struck with their general accuracy. Between the Solway and the Tay the country is distorted and the distances thrown out of proportion by the unfortunate mistake which turned the north of Scotland to the east. The effect is to increase some of the distances to a little more than double their proper length, and proportionally to diminish others. The whole country being placed in too northern a latitude does not affect the distances, and the smaller degree of longitude would be taken into account in laying down the positions; but it must be kept in mind that Ptolemy uses no smaller division than one-eighth of a degree, giving a possible variation to each place of seven miles in one direction and five in another. Taking all this into account, however, the distances between the leading features of the country, which it is impossible to mistake, are wonderfully correct.

The Latin editions of Ptolemy are the earliest, and are greatly to be preferred to the Greek. They were printed from a translation into Latin by Jacob Angelus, and consist of an edition at Bologna bearing the date 1462, but which is believed not to be the true date; one at Vincenza in 1475, which is really the earliest edition; that of Rome, 1478, the first with maps; Ulm, 1482 and 1486; Rome, 1490 and 1507; Venice, 1511; Strasburg, 1513, 1520, and 1522, in which the text is compared with an old Greek MS.; an edition in 1525, which bears to be a correction of Jacob Angelus’s translation by I. de Regiomonte, and in which the principal changes introduced into the later Greek editions first make their appearance; and the two editions by Servetus in 1535 and 1541. The principal Greek editions are those of Erasmus in 1533 and 1546, Montanus in 1605, and Bertius in 1619. A recent edition has appeared, by Dr. F. G. Wilberg, in 1838, from a collation of nine mss. with the editions of 1482, 1513, 1533, and 1535, and with a ms. at Milan, another at Vienna, and two Latin mss. collated by Mannert. The author has himself collated for this work the Latin editions of 1482, 1486, 1520, 1522, 1525, 1535, with the Greek editions of 1605 and 1619, and with Wilberg’s edition, and he agrees with Mannert in giving the preference among the early editions to the Ulm edition of 1482, and the Strasburg editions of 1520 and 1522. In the so-called corrected edition of 1525 he has no confidence. The variations occur both in the names and in the latitudes and longitudes. In cases where all the editions agree, there can be no doubt as to the genuine text used. When they differ, he has laid down the positions according to the variant readings, and selected the one which best corresponded with the appearance of the country. The agreement is mainly in the position of the towns, and the variations in the features of the coast, and are, therefore, more easily corrected.