Note 1111 — Chapter X · THE ASTRONOMICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE KNOWN WORLD
Reading edition
On the famous Vatopedi manuscript map of the world ascribed to Agathodaemon by Fischer but, as Fischer claims, directly based upon material furnished by Ptolemy, the boundaries of the climates are expressly defined in relation to Ptolemy’s parallels, as set forth in the Geography. The first climate begins with the parallel of Meroë, latitude 16°25′N., and extends to that of Syene, 23°50′N., there being a difference of half an hour between the length of the longest day at its northern and at its southern edge. The other six climates follow as shown on Figure 11, col. III. The same correlation is made in the anonymous Greek treatise Διάγνωσις ἐν ἐπιτομῇ τῆς ἐν τῇ σφαίρᾳ γεωγραφίας in: Müller, Geogr. graeci min., 1882, vol. ii, pp. 491–493. See Fischer, op. cit., pp. 90–91. See Figure 11, cols. III and IV.
454It may be added that in a work entitled Preceptum canonis Ptolemei, preserved in Chartres, Bibliothèque Publique, MS. No. 214, fol. 1ro., and dating perhaps from the sixth century, the writer found a description of the division of the world in seven climates. No mention is made of the parallels by number, but the boundaries of the climates, as there defined and as is shown on Figure 11, col. V, correspond to the figures for latitude assigned to the fifth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth, fifteenth, and seventeenth parallels of Ptolemy’s Almagest.