WHO WAS GERARDUS MERCATOR?

Gerhard Kremer (1512-94) was called Gerardus Mercator, meaning merchant, because he made maps for merchants travelling from country to country. In 1569, he made a world map using a projection that has come to be known as Mercator’s projection. It is a map that seems familiar to us, but in fact it makes countries at the far north and south of the globe appears much larger than they really are.

A Flemish cartographer who invented a system of setting lines of latitude and longitude on charts of the spherical earth, the “Mercator projection,” which has become a standard for maps into modern times. Born in Rupelmonde, a small town in Flanders, he studied at the University of Louvain, where he achieved a master’s degree in 1532. Troubled by the conflict of ancient Greek philosophy with Christian doctrine, Mercator studied mathematics, philosophy, geography and astronomy in order to reach some conclusions about the origins and true nature of the world. He was above all fascinated by the developing art of mapmaking, which in his day benefited from the discoveries of explorers and traveling merchants. He became a skilled maker of globes and instruments; under the training of Gemma Frisius and Gaspar Myrica, two men expert in the craft, he also mastered the difficult art of engraving. A workshop set up by the three men turned Louvain into an important center of globe making, cartography, and the production of sextants, telescopes, and other scientific instruments. His far-ranging exploration and questioning of accepted Christian doctrines, however, landed him in trouble with the religious authorities, and in 1544 he was arrested, tried, convicted, and briefly imprisoned on a charge of heresy.

In 1552 Mercator moved to Duisburg, in the Germany duchy of Cleves, where he was appointed a professor of mathematics and also became a land surveyor. In Duisburg, where he remained for the rest of his life, he helped to found a grammar school and continued his work in cartography. After publishing a map of Europe in 1554 and then several other local maps of Britain and the European continent, his reputation spread. He also developed a new method of producing globes, in which he pasted on the sphere printed maps that were cut to fit by tapering their edges toward the top and bottom.

Mercator was appointed by the Duke of Cleves as an official court cartographer. He perfected his system of marking parallel lines on a map to indicate degrees of longitude that could be applied to navigation charts and allow ship captains to more accurately follow their course at sea. He first used this system on a map of the world he completed in 1569. In the 1570s he began producing an atlas, a collection that included the maps of the ancient Greek astronomer Ptolemy as well as his own maps covering France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, eastern Europe, Greece, and the British Isles. This work, which he completed over the span of more than twenty years, was finally published by his son after his death.

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