Questions about Gerardus Mercator
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is the Mercator projection and why is it still used today?
The Mercator projection is a method of drawing nautical charts, first published by Gerardus Mercator in 1569, in which the map scale increases with latitude so that lines of constant compass bearing appear as straight lines. Mariners could draw a straight line between two points, read off a bearing, and hold it across an entire voyage. The projection remains the world standard for nautical charts to this day, even though it is now rejected for general maps of the world because of its severe distortions at high latitudes.
Why was Gerardus Mercator accused of heresy by the Inquisition?
In 1543, Mercator's name appeared on a list of fifty-two Lutheran heretics drawn up by Inquisitors at the University of Leuven. He was accused of suspicious correspondence with Franciscan friars in Mechelen. His close friendship with Philip Melanchthon, a principal Lutheran reformer, his attendance at a school founded on proto-Lutheran ideals, and his visits to humanist Franciscans all contributed to suspicion. After seven months in prison in Rupelmonde castle, he was released because no incriminating writings were found.
What was the first book of maps to use the word Atlas as its title?
The 1595 Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura, published posthumously by Mercator's son Rumold, was the first book of maps to carry the word Atlas as its title. Mercator chose the word to honour the Titan Atlas, King of Mauretania, whom he considered the first great geographer, and he intended it as a neologism for a cosmological treatise rather than simply a collection of maps.
Where did Gerardus Mercator spend the last thirty years of his life and why did he move there?
Mercator moved to Duisburg in the Duchy of Cleves, in what is now Germany, in 1552 and lived there until his death in 1594. He left Leuven because Catholic intolerance of religious dissent was intensifying in the Low Countries, and a man once accused of heresy could never fully be trusted there. Duisburg offered religious tolerance under an Erasmian constitution, and Duke Wilhelm welcomed Mercator, appointing him court cosmographer.
What did Gerardus Mercator do besides make maps?
Mercator was a maker of scientific instruments and globes, an accomplished engraver and calligrapher, and a scholar of theology, philosophy, mathematics, history, and geomagnetism. He wrote the Chronologia, a four-hundred-page table of world events from the creation, and produced a definitive edition of Ptolemy's twenty-eight maps. He also wrote on the gospels, the Old Testament, and the Harmonisation of the Gospels, and completed a treatise on the Creation of the World shortly before his death.
How did Jodocus Hondius transform the Mercator Atlas after Mercator's death?
Jodocus Hondius purchased the copper plates from Mercator's family in 1604 and added almost forty new maps, including maps of Spain and Portugal that the original atlas had omitted. He published a new edition in 1606 under his own name while fully acknowledging Mercator's authorship. Hondius and his successors produced twenty-nine editions between 1609 and 1641, including an English edition and a compact Atlas Minor, turning what had been a commercial disappointment into an enormous success.