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Ivan Andreyevich Krylov (Russian: Ива́н Андре́евич Крыло́в; February 13, 1769 – November 21, 1844) is Russia's best-known fabulist. Formerly a dramatist and journalist, he only discovered his literary gifts in the folktale genre at the age of 40. While many of his earlier fables were loosely based on Aesop's and La Fontaine's, later fables were original work, often with a satirical bent. His Russian is highly regarded as is his treatment of human foibles and Russian officialdom.

Ptolemy, or in Latin Claudius Ptolemaeus (ca. 90 – ca. 168 C.E., was a mathematician, philosopher, geographer, map maker, astronomer, theologian, and astrologer who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. He is most remembered because of his development of the geocentric (Earth-centered) cosmological system, known as the Ptolemaic system or Ptolemaic cosmology, which was one of the most influential and longest-lasting, intellectual-scientific achievements in human history. Although his model of the universe was erroneous, he based his theory on observations that he and others had made, and he provided a mathematical foundation that made a powerful case in support of the geocentric paradigm and ensured its continued use well into the future.