Ptolemaic universe

Cultural  

1. The model for the universe, put forth by the ancient Greek astronomer Ptolemy, that had the Earth at the center, with the sun, moon, planets, and stars revolving around it.

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The Ptolemaic system prevailed in astronomy for nearly fifteen hundred years, until the model of the solar system proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus (with the sun, not the Earth, at the center) was accepted. Church authorities forced Galileo to declare belief in the Earth-centered universe.

Example Sentences

Into the material embryo, about 40 days after conception, life entered from the outermost sphere of the Earth-centered Ptolemaic universe.

From Time Magazine Archive

It was then a Ptolemaic universe, revolving around the White House.

From Time Magazine Archive

Although Gilbert does not make it explicit, this would solve the medieval problem of gravitation without resorting to a Ptolemaic universe.

From The Natural Philosophy of William Gilbert and His Predecessors by King, W. James

Its scene was the Ptolemaic universe with the Christian heaven and hell inserted.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 6 "English Language" to "Epsom Salts" by Various