Ptolemy · Geography · transmission research
Compare published hypotheses about the Greek manuscripts of the Geography. Each diagram retains its named source, scope and sigla. Manuscript boxes open the identity register below.
Text, coordinate lists and maps can have different transmission histories. These diagrams restate scholarly reconstructions; their lines do not establish direct copying, complete surviving coverage or passage-to-image alignment.
Textual grouping described by Defaux 2017
The five principal witnesses: Ω contains U, K, V and R; Ξ is represented by X. Dotted lines mark membership, not copying.
A reading guide to the two textual groups, not a full genealogy. No common archetype or internal descent between U, K, V and R is inferred. Affiliations can vary by book and passage.
Defaux 2017, §2.1.1, p. 61 · Inspect cited source page ↗
Select a manuscript box for its identity and catalogue links. Dashed boxes are reconstructed sources or families; they are not additional surviving codices. Grey warning boxes mark unresolved identities and remain unlinked. Positions are newly drawn from the reviewed source model.
Schnabel 1938 → A. Hermann (Appendix A spelling) → Defaux 2017
A redrawn historical text-and-map hypothesis. Surviving manuscript sigla, lost exemplars, source families and mixed affiliations remain distinct. Repeated labels for B/P/S and O are merged as identities.
This is not Defaux’s endorsed final genealogy. On p. 74 n. 91 he calls the single-archetype presentation misleading. Dates, geographic origins and map counts belong to the historical model; they are not current catalogue findings. Solid arrows restate source proposals, not proof of direct copying.
Defaux 2017, Appendix A, p. 416; note cites Schnabel 1938, p. 120 · Inspect cited source page ↗
Select a manuscript box for its identity and catalogue links. Dashed boxes are reconstructed sources or families; they are not additional surviving codices. Grey warning boxes mark unresolved identities and remain unlinked. Positions are newly drawn from the reviewed source model.
Source-specific sigla and physical identities
A siglum belongs to its named study. A catalogue link identifies a physical object; it does not silently add a work, family placement or image permission.
20 manuscript identities
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
The Heidelberg description identifies this as a Geography manuscript and links its facsimile. A is the siglum used here; other studies may assign different sigla to the same physical manuscript. Image coverage has not been fully audited.
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
Repeated labels in Appendix A refer to this same manuscript. The local diagram merges those labels and shows their mixed affiliations.
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
Royal Danish Library, Copenhagen
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
A surviving fragment of two leaves (one bifolium), with portions of Book VIII and three coloured maps. The Royal Danish Library provides page navigation; this is a fragment rather than a complete codex.
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
Defaux 2017, p. 59
Topkapı Palace Library, Istanbul
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
The Bern research centre identifies the Topkapı manuscript and its published 2017 facsimile. This link is a scholarly facsimile record; freely available images of the complete codex have not been verified.
Vatopedi / British Library / Bibliothèque nationale de France
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
One source siglum for a manuscript now divided among three holdings. The British Library link covers Add. MS 19391, ff. 14–17, one component containing Geography material; it does not represent the entire dispersed witness. The catalogue currently reports digital images unavailable.
Bodleian Libraries, Oxford
Defaux 2017, p. 59
Defaux identifies N with the Oxford manuscript MS. Arch. Selden. B. 46. The linked ARCA institutional image record provides a navigation lead; current access and full manuscript image coverage have not been verified.
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
The scholarly catalogue identifies Ptolemy’s Geography in this Laurenziana manuscript. The link supplies manuscript identification; current facsimile access has not been verified.
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
Repeated labels in Appendix A refer to this same manuscript. The local diagram merges those labels and shows their mixed affiliations.
Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
The institutional Pinakes catalogue identifies Marciana gr. Z. 516 (coll. 904). This is a catalogue link; a freely available complete facsimile has not been verified.
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
Repeated labels in Appendix A refer to this same manuscript. The local diagram merges those labels and shows their mixed affiliations.
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
The existing Magalia record preserves conflicting dates: supplied Vatican metadata gives the eleventh century, while an Oxford institutional account places the manuscript around 1300. This diagram does not resolve that discrepancy. The catalogue records a Geography range of ff. 1r–110r and a sampled image check dated 2026-10-13.
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
Defaux identifies V with Vat.gr.177. The holding library supplies a manuscript viewer. Current per-page image coverage has not been audited.
British Library, London
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
Lowercase v is distinct from uppercase V and Greek ν. It appears in the identity crosswalk and discussion of Burri’s revision, not as an additional node in Appendix A. The British Library catalogue currently reports its digital images unavailable; a separate Pelagios dataset contains 68 map images, which does not establish a complete codex scan.
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
The existing Magalia record identifies Geography at ff. 128v–169v of this composite manuscript. It retains a repository manifest and an image sample checked on 2026-10-13; that sample does not establish complete image coverage.
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Defaux 2017, Signs and abbreviations, p. 15
The Heidelberg description identifies the Geography and explicitly records siglum Z. It links a facsimile, but current image loading and complete coverage have not been verified in this review.
Appendix A is Defaux’s English redraw of a diagram made by A. Herrmann from Schnabel’s work. It must be read with Defaux’s criticism of its single-archetype presentation, rather than treated as a settled family tree. Appendix A prints “A. Hermann”; the main discussion uses “A. Herrmann”.
Defaux 2017, p. 416 note; p. 74 n. 91
The transmission of drawings and of textual coordinates is partly independent. A codex’s textual group does not automatically establish the descent of its maps. W means world map; R means regional maps; ° means no maps; ? means possibly maps. Parentheses mark a lost manuscript and/or map; an asterisk marks mixed text. Map descriptions in the historical diagram are source claims, not digitization coverage.
Defaux 2017, pp. 63–64; Appendix A p. 416
A single author-wide genealogy is too coarse. Defaux discusses differences by book and by passage, along with corrections and mixed readings. The simple Ω/Ξ guide is a membership map for the principal textual witnesses, not a claim that all contents of a codex follow one ancestor.
Defaux 2017, pp. 61, 64–66
Figure 4 translates the overview of Stückelberger and Mittenhuber (2009, p. 22). Defaux describes it as a rough sketch and challenges its chronology, including arguments drawn from Rylands 522. That papyrus preserves Handy Tables material, not the Geography’s catalogue of localities. It is not inserted here as a Geography witness.
Defaux 2017, pp. 68–70 and Fig. 4 p. 69
Defaux reports Burri’s revisions: UKN are apographs of a common exemplar; lowercase v is associated with A rather than O’s family; B and P probably derive from S. These are a separate scholarly comparison, not edits to the historical model printed in Appendix A.
Defaux 2017, p. 68, reporting Burri 2013
Lowercase d in Appendix A is retained as an unlinked, unresolved siglum: the inspected identity crosswalk does not identify its shelfmark. L denotes a manuscript divided among three holdings. Greek ν, uppercase V and lowercase v are different labels. No new manuscript or full scan is admitted solely by appearing in this diagram.
Defaux 2017, pp. 15, 59, 416
Twenty source-specific manuscript identities are registered for navigation and comparison. Only X and U currently link to admitted Magalia Geography records. Other named witnesses are scholarly research entries. This is not a complete census of surviving Geography manuscripts, a new collation, or a full Geography reader.
Defaux 2017, source crosswalk p. 15 and descriptions pp. 57–60; Magalia catalogue association checked 2026-10-17
