Another printing followed in 1602, and further maps were added in a later edition of 1606, usually called the MercatorHondius Atlas.. His connection with this world of privilege was facilitated by his fellow student Antoine Perrenot, soon to be appointed Bishop of Arras, and Antoine's father, Nicholas Perrenot, the Chancellor of Charles V. Working alongside Gemma whilst they were producing the globes, Mercator would have witnessed the process of progressing geography: obtaining previous maps, comparing and collating their content, studying geographical texts and seeking new information from correspondents, merchants, pilgrims, travellers and seamen. He gave us the Mercator projection. [ar], The atlas was not an immediate success. Mercator first applied the italic script to the globe of Gemma Frisius and thereafter to all his works, with ever-increasing elegance. See, The top line of the title page spells out a highly decorative form of the word, Some of the correspondence of Mercator and, The persecution of heretics is discussed in, Other refugees in Duisburg included Johannes Oeste (or Otho), Georg Cassander and Cornelius Wouters. [63][64] Only one of his own copies has been founda first edition of Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium annotated in Mercator's hand: this is held by Glasgow University.[63]. Mercator was born in Flanders (located in modern-day Belgium) in 1512. By J. Vivian. Mercator graduated Magister in 1532.[o]. [26][27] Dee and Mercator were both passionately interested in the same topics and they quickly established a close rapport which lasted throughout their lives. The only known copy of the sale catalogue[61] perished in the Second World War but fortunately a manuscript copy had been made by Van Raemdonck in 1891 and this was rediscovered in 1987. [aa] 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. These widely admired globes were costly and their wide sales provided Mercator an income which, together with that from mathematical instruments and from teaching, allowed him to marry and establish a home. Born as Geert de Kremer on March 5, 1512, in Rupelmonde, County of Flanders (modern day Belgium), the son of a shoemaker was the family's seventh child and lived in Gangelt during most of his childhood. All of these were among Mercator's accomplishments but his patron's first call on his services was as a mundane surveyor of the disputed boundary between the Duke's territory of the County of Mark and the Duchy of Westphalia.[35]. Walter Ghim, Mercator's friend and first biographer, describes him as sober in his behaviour, yet cheerful and witty in company, and never more happy than in debate with other scholars. The title itself provides Mercator's definition of a new meaning for the word "Atlas": Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura which may be translated as "Atlas or cosmographical meditations upon the fabric of the world and the figure of the fabrick'd, or, more colloquially, as Atlas or cosmographical meditations upon the creation of the universe, and the universe as created. [3] 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.[4]. I liked not only the description of the Earth but the structure of the whole machinery of the world."[s]. In his own day, he was a notable maker of globes and scientific instruments. In 1564 Mercator created a map of Lorraine and the British Isles. There is a Belgian bank note. Sixteenth-century geographer Gerardus Mercator was born in 1512 in Rupelmonde, Flanders. There is some doubt about the relationship of Hubert and Gisbert. Mercator never committed any of his prison experiences to paper; all he would say[23] was that he had suffered an "unjust persecution". Gerardus Mercator (5 March 1512 - 2 December 1594) was a Flemish cartographer. 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. Early years Rupelmonde from Flandria illustrata, 1641 Gerardus Mercator was born Geert or Gerard (de) Kremer (or Cremer), the seventh child of Hubert (de) 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. Title. The words of the latter on the death of heretics convey the atmosphere of that time:[w]. Gerardus Mercator of Rupelmonde at the age of 62Frans Hogen-burg made this portrait out of affection for him. G L'E Turner, 'To find the mind's construction in the face' : the newly-discovered astrolabes of Mercator. The identity of neither the author nor the friend has been established but it has been suggested that the map was created by a Scottish Catholic priest called John Elder who smuggled it to French clergy known to Antoine Perrenot, Mercator's friend. In 1552 Mercator moved to Duisburg in the Duchy of Cleve and assisted in the creation of a grammar school. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The arrival of Mercator on the cartographic scene would have been noted by the cognoscenti who purchased Gemma's globe the professors, rich merchants, prelates, aristocrats and courtiers of the emperor Charles V at nearby Brussels. There are two museums dedicated primarily to Mercator: The globes by Gemma Frisius and Mercator are discussed in Volume 3 of the History of Cartography (Cartography in the European Renaissance). [11] The gores were to be engraved on copper, instead of wood, and the text was to be in an elegant italic script instead of the heavy Roman lettering of the early globes. GERARDUS MERCATOR [latinized form of ] (1512-1594), Flemish mathematician and geographer, was born at Rupelmonde, in Flanders, on the 5th of March 1512. However, Mercator used it as a neologism for a treatise (Cosmologia) on the creation, history and description of the universe, not simply a collection of maps. ), Netherlandish school of cartography and geography, Kultur- und Stadthistorisches Museum, Duisburg, Germany. 4494. It was invaluable as an accurate guide for the planned Catholic invasion of England by Philip II of Spain. Gerardus Mercator was born on March 5, 1512 in Rupelmond, County of Flanders (modern-day Belgium). He also wrote on the gospels and the Old Testament. That made matters worse for he was now classified as a fugitive who, by fleeing arrest, had proved his own guilt. In the sixteenth century it was the second largest town in the Low Countries. [33] He 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. Mercator began his education in Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, where he studied Christian doctrine, dialectics, and Latin. In 1578 he published the corrected and updated maps created by Ptolemy. This was a substantial enterprise involving the manufacture of the spheres, printing the gores, building substantial stands, packing and distributing them all over Europe. During these busy years he also undertook genealogical research for Duke Wilhelm, drew up a Concordance of the Gospels, and composed a detailed commentary on the first part of the Letter of Paul to the Romans. It was hoped for source of the income that was needed to support them. In 1564 he completed a map of Lorraine (now lost) and another of the British Isles. [q] He 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. Mercator was born to a shoemaker on March 5, 1512 in Rupelmonde, Flanders (the Belgian town . He was born in Rupelmonde in the County of Flanders. For sixty years they were considered the finest in the world, and were sold in such numbers that there are many surviving examples. During this period he travelled to Antwerp and Mechelen and became highly interested in geography which could explain the structure of the Earth. Above all he was pious and studious until his dying days. He learnt engraving and instrument making from Gaspar Van der Heyden during this period. Gerardus Mercator, Jr.; and (E) America, by Michael Mercator. His inability to accept the Bibles account of the universes creation got him into trouble with the Inquisition in 1544 and he spent some months in prison on suspicion of heresy before being released. Thereafter he married Gertrude Vierlings, the wealthy widow of the mayor of Duisburg in 1589. Many maps using the Mercator projection are still used in classrooms today, despite the development of newer, more accurate map projections. He is most renowned for a 1569 world map based on a new projection which represented courses of constant bearing as straight lines. He also started making high quality mathematical instruments and sold them to others with the permission of the university to earn some money. [h] In 1518, the Kremer family moved back to Rupelmonde,[i] possibly motivated by the deteriorating conditions in Gangeltfamine, plague and lawlessness. Gerardus Mercator was a Flemish geographer, cosmographer and cartographer. A great-uncle who was a priest made sure that he got a good education and after graduating from the University of Louvain in 1532 he studied mathematics, geography and astronomy under Gemma Frisius, the Low Countries leading figure in these fields. The son of a cobbler, Mercator grew up in a poor family. In 1544 he was arrested and imprisoned on a charge of heresy. Twenty-two pairs are still in existence. Towards the end of 1534, the twenty-two-year-old Mercator arrived back in Leuven and threw himself into the study of geography, mathematics and astronomy under the guidance of Gemma Frisius. Amanda Briney, M.A., is a professional geographer. Most of Mercators work on the globes consisted of the labeling of features with italic lettering. Longitudes in the atlas are referred to the prime meridian of Ptolemy and differ from present day values by approximately 18 degrees (notwithstanding the errors in Mercator's data). By 1536 Mercator had proven himself as an excellent engraver, calligrapher, and instrument maker. In addition, on the base of the memorial, there is an epigram:[ap]. On 2 December 1594, Gerardus Mercator died from complications related to continues strokes. The famous Mercator Chart has been named after him. In 1548 Dee returned to Leuven (Louvain in Dee's text) and registered as a student: for three years he was constantly in Mercator's company. [ae] In the Hogenberg portrait (below) his dividers are set on the position of the magnetic pole. On Gemma Frisius suggestion he started to study mathematics which related to cosmography and soon began enjoying mathematics and started applying it to astronomy and geography. [5] All teaching at the school was in Latin and he would read, write and converse in Latin, and give himself a new Latin name, Gerardus Mercator Rupelmundanus, Mercator being the Latin translation of Kremer, which means "merchant". [66] His construction of a chart on which the courses of constant bearing favoured by mariners appeared as straight lines ultimately revolutionised the art of navigation, making it simpler and therefore safer. The contents of the library provide an insight into Mercator's intellectual studies but the mathematics books are the only ones to have been subjected to scholarly analysis: they cover arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, surveying, architecture, fortification, astronomy, astrology, time measurement, calendar calculation, scientific instruments, cartography and applications. It was essentially an act of reverence by one scholar for another, a final epitaph for the Ptolemy who had inspired Mercator's love of geography early in his life. He died of a third stroke and cerebral hemorrhage on December 2, 1594, in Duisburg, the duchy of Cleves which is now located in Germany. [8][9] He 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. His parents returned to Gangelt after Gerardus was born but had to come back to Rupelmonde in 1518 due to plagues, famines and lawlessness. The illustration shows a similar clock made by the German craftsman Baldewein[de] at roughly the same time. He was later released due to university support and he was allowed to continue pursuing his scientific studies and print and publish books. Encyclopdia Britannica. His name at birth was Gerard de Cremer or de Kremer. [24] They were ready in 1545 and the Emperor granted the royal seal of approval to his workshop. At this time Mercator began studying with Gemma Frisius, a theoretical mathematician, physician and astronomer, and Gaspar a Myrica, an engraver and goldsmith. "[14] It also sold in large quantities for much of the rest of the century with a second edition in 1572 and a third edition in the atlas of 1595. 149150. The normal progress for an able Magister was to go on to further study in one of the four faculties at Leuven: Theology, Medicine, Canon Law and Roman Law. Gerardus Mercator was a Flemish cartographer, philosopher, and geographer who is best known for his creation of the Mercator map projection. In fact, as Business Insider pointed out in a series of graphics, Greenland can fit in Africa around 14 times, while South America is roughly three times the size of Europe. See, Mercator's workshops produced items such as globes in a steady stream. All were arrested except Mercator who had left Leuven for Rupelmonde on business concerning the estate of his recently deceased uncle Gisbert. Gemma and Gaspar Van der Heyden had completed a terrestrial globe in 1529 but by 1535 they were planning a new globe embodying the latest geographical discoveries. The records of the Plantin Press show that several hundred[31] pairs of globes were sold before the end of the century despite their high pricein 1570 they sold at 25 carolus guilders for a pair. Gerardus Mercator was born on March 5th, 1512 in Rupelmonde, Flanders. This period of persecution is probably the major factor in his move from Catholic Leuven (Louvain) to a more tolerant Duisburg, in the Holy Roman Empire, where he lived for the last thirty years of his life.
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