I'm not pleased by any reiteration of that particular irrational and easily debunked fallacy, and its inclusion in the intro to what purports to be scholarly work causes me to view that work's claims to scholarship with great suspicion.
I have the Almagest right here. In it Ptolemy proves the earth round and suspended in space. Granted, he placed it in the center, which is not entirely unjustified.
I'm not pleased by any reiteration of that particular irrational and easily debunked fallacy
It may not be as fallacious as you think. Keep in mind that "not too long ago", there was a very vast gulf between what educated people knew and what the great mass of everyone else thought. Although it truly is a fallacy, for example, to say that Columbus set out to "prove" that the earth was round, nonetheless I wouldn't be surprised if there were more than a few sailors on his ships who really did have a few jitters about possibly sailing off the edge of the earth.