Handy Tables

{{Short description|Collection of astronomical tables}}

File:P. Ryl. Gr. 3 523 Handy Tables.jpg

Ptolemy's Handy Tables ({{langx|grc|πρόχειροι κανόνες|Procheiroi kanones}}) is a collection of astronomical tables that second century astronomer Ptolemy created after finishing the Almagest. The Handy Tables elaborated the astronomical tables of the Almagest and included usage instructions, but left out the theoretical commentary in order to facilitate practical computation. The work is considered of high significance during the late antiquity and in the Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean medieval traditions.{{Cite web |title=astronomy - Ancient Greece {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/astronomy/Ancient-Greece |access-date=2022-10-31 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=Alexander |date=May 2017 |title=Ptolemy's Handy Tables |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0021828617706254 |journal=Journal for the History of Astronomy |language=en |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=238–241 |doi=10.1177/0021828617706254 |s2cid=125658099 |issn=0021-8286}}{{Cite book |last=Tihon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r1QazgEACAAJ |title=Ptolemaiou Procheiroi Kanones. Ptolemy's Handy Tables. Volume 1b: Tables A1-A2. Transcription and Commentary |date=2011 |publisher=Peeters |isbn=978-2-7584-0117-9 |language=en}}

The earliest surviving manuscript in the Rylands Library dates from the 3rd century AD.{{Cite web |title=Astronomical table |url=https://luna.manchester.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/ManchesterDev~93~3~55170~189079# |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=luna.manchester.ac.uk |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Astronomical table |url=https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma992986479474501631 |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Defaux |first=Olivier |date=2020-01-01 |title=Le Papyrus Rylands 522/523 et les tables de Ptolémée |url=https://www.academia.edu/43212361/Le_Papyrus_Rylands_522_523_et_les_tables_de_Ptol%C3%A9m%C3%A9e |journal=Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik}}{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=C. H. |title=Catalogue of the Greek and Latin Papyri in the John Rylands Library Manchester, Volume III, Theological and Literary Texts (Nos. 457-551). |date=1938 |publisher=Manchester University Library |pages=147-150}} Ptolemy is also thought to have produced the Table of Noteworthy Cities as an aid for his astronomical tables.{{Cite book |last=Defaux |first=Olivier |title=The Iberian peninsula in Ptolemy's Geography: origins of the coordinates and textual history |date=2017 |publisher=Edition Topoi |isbn=978-3-9816384-6-2 |series=Berlin studies of the ancient world |location=Berlin |pages=122-6}}