Kept Alive in Arabic

Ptolemy's Optics

مناظر بطلميوس

Ptolemy wrote his Optics in Greek; the Greek is lost, and so is its Arabic translation. It survives in a Latin version made from the Arabic by Eugene of Palermo in Sicily around 1154, lacking the first of its five books and part of the fifth. All that is known of the book today passed through Arabic.

Author

Ptolemy (2nd century; survives only in a Latin version made from Arabic, c. 1154)

Field

Optics

What Arabic kept

All that remains of the book, by way of Latin

Greek title

Ὀπτικά

Arabic title

كتاب المناظر لبطلميوس (الترجمة العربيّة مفقودة)

Latin title

Optica (Latin of Eugene of Palermo, c. 1154)

Click a card to see it full size; each has a download button for sharing.

Download the card Close