Ptolemy

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In Canto IV of the Inferno, Dante places Ptolemy in Limbo, within the group of ancient scientists gathered with Euclid, Hippocrates, and Galen, as indicated by verse 142: «Euclide geomètra e Tolomeo». The note to the canto specifies that this is the Alexandrian astronomer of the 2nd century B.C., whose astronomical authority still dominated medieval culture before the Copernican revolution. A second mention appears in Canto VI of the Paradiso, where Ptolemy is not part of the scene but is recalled as the Egyptian sovereign to whom Pompey fled after the defeat of Pharsalus and who ordered his killing, according to the note to the canto that connects the «Nil caldo» of verse 66 to that refuge.