Marinus of Tyre

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Marinus of Tyre (ca. 70–130 A.D.) Phoenician geographer and mathematician, considered to be the founder of mathematical geography. He assigned to each place its proper latitude and longtitude with equal spacing for lines (ca. 100 A.D.), and introduced improvements to the construction of maps and developed a system of nautical charts. His maps were the first in the Roman Empire to show China. Marinus is know to have carefully studied the works of his predecessors and the diaries of travellers. His charts used the city of Rhodes as a central point of reference, leading to speculation that his geography may have been based on, or even a copy of, the geography of Hipparchos (ca. 140 BC), which is known to have existed but no longer survives.

Around 120 A.D., Marinus wrote that the habitable world was bounded on the west by the Fortunate Islands (known today as the Canary Islands). The status of the Fortunate Islands as the western edge of the known world was more formally established when Claudius Ptolemy (90 - 168 A.D.) adopted the Fortunate Islands as the prime meridian for his Geographia, written ca. 150 A.D. He acknowledged his great obligations to Marinus. Geographia was lost to the west during most of the Medieval period, but was rediscovered during the fifteenth century. It was the most famous classical geography, unsurpassed for almost 1500 years. The sources that Ptolemy cited most consistently were the maps and writings of Marinus, as well as adopting his ideas and practices. Ptolemy’s commentaries on Marinus are the only records remaining about the latter’s work, as none of his maps or texts has survived.

Marinus wrote an account of a journey to the Ruwenzori ca. 110 A.D. He related the tale of a Greek merchant, Diogenes who claimed a 25 day journey inland from the African East coast to "two great lakes and the snowy range of mountains where the Nile draws it's twin sources." Ptolemy and Marinus were major authorities used by Christopher Columbus in determining the circumference of the globe.