63 Facts About Gerardus Mercator

Gerardus Mercator was a Flemish geographer, cosmographer and cartographer.

Gerardus Mercator is widely considered the most notable figure of the school.

However, Gerardus Mercator used it as a neologism for a treatise on the creation, history and description of the universe, not simply a collection of maps.

Gerardus Mercator chose the word as a commemoration of the Titan Atlas, "King of Mauretania", whom he considered to be the first great geographer.

Gerardus Mercator was renowned for his scientific instruments, particularly his astrolabes and astronomical rings used to study the geometry of astronomy and astrology.

Gerardus Mercator wrote on the gospels and the Old Testament.

Gerardus Mercator was a devout Christian born into a Catholic family at a time when Martin Luther's Protestantism was gaining ground.

Gerardus Mercator never declared himself as a Lutheran but was clearly sympathetic, and he was accused of heresy by Catholic authorities; after six months in prison he was released unscathed.

Gerardus Mercator was born Geert or Gerard Kremer, the seventh child of Hubert Kremer and his wife Emerance in Rupelmonde, Flanders, a small village to the southwest of Antwerp, all of which lay in the fiefdom of Habsburg Netherlands.

Gerardus Mercator's parents came from Gangelt in the Holy Roman Duchy of Julich.

Gerardus Mercator would have attended the local school in Rupelmonde from the age of seven, when he arrived from Gangelt, and there he would have been taught the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic and Latin.

Gerardus Mercator would follow similar precepts later in life, with problematic outcomes.

The Brethren were renowned for their scriptorium, and here Gerardus Mercator might have encountered the italic script which he employed in his later work.

From a famous school, Gerardus Mercator moved to the famous University of Leuven, where his full Latin name appears in the matriculation records for 1530.

Gerardus Mercator lived in one of the teaching colleges, the Castle College, and, although he was classified as a pauper, he rubbed shoulders with richer students, amongst whom were the anatomist Andreas Vesalius, the statesman Antoine Perrenot, and the theologian George Cassander, all destined to fame and all lifelong friends of Mercator.

Gisbert might have hoped that Gerardus Mercator would go further in theology and train for the priesthood but Gerardus Mercator did not: like many twenty year old young men he was having his first serious doubts.

Gerardus Mercator left Leuven for Antwerp, there to devote his time to contemplation of philosophy.

Gerardus Mercator certainly read widely but succeeded only in uncovering more contradictions between the world of the Bible and the world of geography, a hiatus which would occupy him for the rest of his life.

Gerardus Mercator was a controversial figure who, from time to time, was in conflict with the church authorities because of his humanist outlook and his break from Aristotelian views of the world: his own views of geography were based on investigation and observation.

Towards the end of 1534, the twenty-two-year-old Gerardus Mercator arrived back in Leuven and threw himself into the study of geography, mathematics and astronomy under the guidance of Gemma Frisius.

Gerardus Mercator was completely out of his depth but, with the help and friendship of Gemma, who was only four years older, he succeeded in mastering the elements of mathematics within two years and the university granted him permission to tutor private students.

Gemma had designed some of the mathematical instruments used in these studies and Gerardus Mercator soon become adept in the skills of their manufacture: practical skills of working in brass, mathematical skills for calculation of scales and engraving skills to produce the finished work.

The globe was a combined effort: Gemma researched the content, Van der Heyden engraved the geography and Gerardus Mercator engraved the text, including the cartouche which exhibited his own name in public for the first time.

Gerardus Mercator put his newly learned talents to work in a burst of productivity.

Gerardus Mercator first applied the italic script to the globe of Gemma Frisius and thereafter to all his works, with ever-increasing elegance.

Gerardus Mercator's name appeared on a list of 52 Lutheran heretics which included an architect, a sculptor, a former rector of the university, a monk, three priests and many others.

All were arrested except Gerardus Mercator who had left Leuven for Rupelmonde on business concerning the estate of his recently deceased uncle Gisbert.

Gerardus Mercator was apprehended in Rupelmonde and imprisoned in the castle.

Gerardus Mercator was accused of suspicious correspondence with the Franciscan friars in Mechelen but no incriminating writings were uncovered in his home or at the friary in Mechelen.

Gerardus Mercator never committed any of his prison experiences to paper; all he would say was that he had suffered an "unjust persecution".

Sadly they were soon destroyed in the course of the Emperor's military ventures and Gerardus Mercator had to construct a second set, now lost.

Gerardus Mercator returned to his work on a large up-to-date and highly detailed wall map of Europe which was, he had already claimed on his 1538 world map, very well advanced.

In 1547 Gerardus Mercator was visited by the young John Dee who, on completion of his undergraduate studies in Cambridge, "went beyond the seas to speak and confer with some learned men".

Dee and Gerardus Mercator were both passionately interested in the same topics and they quickly established a close rapport which lasted throughout their lives.

In 1552 Gerardus Mercator moved from Leuven to Duisburg in the Duchy of Cleves at age 40, where he spent the rest of his life.

Gerardus Mercator was not alone; over the years to come many more would flee from the oppressive Catholicism of Brabant and Flanders to tolerant cities such as Duisburg.

Gerardus Mercator quickly established himself as a man of standing in the town: an intellectual of note, a publisher of maps, and a maker of instruments and globes.

Gerardus Mercator never accepted the privileges and voting rights of a burgher for they came with military responsibilities which conflicted with his pacifist and neutral stance.

Gerardus Mercator was welcomed by Duke Wilhelm who appointed him as court cosmographer.

Around this time Gerardus Mercator received and executed a very special order for the Holy Roman Emperor a pair of small globes, the inner Earth was made of wood and the outer celestial sphere was made of blown crystal glass engraved with diamond and inlaid with gold.

Gerardus Mercator presented them to the Emperor in Brussels who awarded him the title Imperatoris domesticus.

The globes are lost but Gerardus Mercator describes them in a letter to Philip Melanchthon in which he declares that the globes were rotated on the top of an astronomical clock made for Charles V by Juanelo Turriano.

In 1554 Gerardus Mercator published the long-awaited wall map of Europe, dedicating it to his friend, now Cardinal, Antoine Perrenot.

Gerardus Mercator had worked at it for more than twelve years, collecting, comparing, collating and rationalising a vast amount of data and the result was a map of unprecedented detail and accuracy.

Gerardus Mercator's sons were now growing to manhood and he encouraged them to embark on his own profession.

In 1564 Gerardus Mercator published his map of Britain, a map of greatly improved accuracy which far surpassed any of his previous representations.

Gerardus Mercator was the first to link historical dates of solar and lunar eclipses to Julian dates calculated mathematically from his knowledge of the motions of the sun, moon and Earth.

Gerardus Mercator then fixed the dates of other events in Babylonian, Greek, Hebrew and Roman calendars relative to the eclipses that they recorded.

Gerardus Mercator's outline was the creation of the world; the description of the heavens ; the description of the earth comprising modern geography, the geography of Ptolemy and the geography of the ancients; genealogy and history of the states; and chronology.

Gerardus Mercator's solution was to make the scale of his chart increase with latitude in a very special way such that the rhumb lines became straight lines on his new world map.

The large size of what was a wall map meant that it did not find favour for use on board ship but, within a hundred years of its creation, the Gerardus Mercator projection became the standard for marine charts throughout the world and continues to be so used to the present day.

Around this time the marshall of Julich approached Gerardus Mercator and asked him to prepare a set of European regional maps which would serve for a grand tour by his patron's son, the crown prince Johannes.

Apart from a revision of the map of Europe in 1572 there would be no more large wall maps and Gerardus Mercator began to address the other tasks that he had outlined in the Cosmographia.

Gerardus Mercator compared the great many editions of the Ptolemy's written Geographia, which described his two projections and listed the latitude and longitude of some 8000 places, as well as the many different versions of the printed maps which had appeared over the previous one hundred years, all with errors and accretions.

Gerardus Mercator now turned to the modern maps, as author but no longer engraver: the practicalities of production of maps and globes had been passed to his sons and grandsons.

In 1589, at the age of 77, Gerardus Mercator had a new lease of life.

Gerardus Mercator struggled with the assistance of his family trying to complete the remaining maps, the ongoing theological publications and a new treatise on the Creation of the World.

Gerardus Mercator was buried in the church of St Salvatore in Duisburg where a memorial was erected about fifty years after his death.

Gerardus Mercator's family did produce another edition in 1602 but only the text was reset, there were no new maps.

Recently Gerardus Mercator's projection has been rejected for representations of the world but it remains paramount for nautical charts and its use stands as his enduring legacy.

Gerardus Mercator's name has been attached to ships, buildings, universities, insurance companies, small businesses, pizzerias, streets, schools and more.

Gerardus Mercator has been modelled in sand and giant figures.

The globes by Gemma Frisius and Gerardus Mercator are discussed in Volume 3 of the History of Cartography.