What does Syntaxis mean?
You had to ask.....
Background
Ptolemy (aka Claudius Ptolemaeus, Ptolomaeus, Klaudios Ptolemaios, Ptolemeus) lived in Alexandria (in Egypt) from approx. 87 -150 AD.
Ptolemy synthesized and extended Hipparchus's system of epicycles and eccentric circles to explain his geocentric
theory of the solar system. Ptolemy's system involved at least 80 epicycles to explain the motions of the Sun, the
Moon, and the five planets known in his time. He believed the planets and sun to orbit the Earth in the order
Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn . This system became known as the Ptolemaic system. It predicts the
positions of the planets accurately enough for naked-eye observations This is described in the book Mathematical
Syntaxis (widely called the Almagest), a thirteen book mathematical treatment of the phenomena of astronomy. It
contains a myriad of information ranging from earth conceptions to sun, moon, and star movement as well as
eclipses and a breakdown on the length of months. The Almagest also included a star catalog containing 48
constellations, using the names we still use today.
The Ptolemaic explanation of the motions of the planets remained the accepted wisdom until the Polish scholar
Copernicus proposed a heliocentric view in 1543. It should be noted, too, that Ptolemy's system is actually more
accurate than Copernicus's. The heliocentric formulation does not improve on Ptolemy's until Kepler's Laws are also
added.
So?
Well, the word Syntaxis went on to be regarded as having the meaning
'tome of knowledge', 'genius' and so on. The word Almagest is the name the Arabic world gave to Ptolomaeus' He Syntaxis Mathematicae and basically means the greatest book.
The Syntaxis Technology logo is a representation of Ptolomaeus' epicyclic orbit theory.
We never said it was a modest name :->