Gerardus Mercator

Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594), Flemish geographer, mapmaker, and mathematician. He is associated with the Mercator projection, a type of map designed especially for use in navigation. Evidence does exist, however, that the projection was in use in 1511, before Mercator was born. His work on the mathematical formulas for new map projections and in compiling geographic knowledge earned him a reputation as the outstanding geographer of the Renaissance.

He was born Gerhard Kremer at Rupelmonde, Flanders, now in Belgium. After graduating from the University of Leuven in what is now Belgium, Mercator became a maker of instruments for drawing maps and making field surveys. He produced his first map in 1537, and in 1541 he completed a terrestrial globe. Mercator and his family moved to Duisburg, Germany, in 1552 to escape religious persecution for their Protestant beliefs.

Mercator’s famous map of the world, drawn on the projection that carries his name, was published in Duisburg in 1569. The projection is very useful to navigators because straight lines between any two points on such a map show a constant compass direction for the course of a ship. Mercator worked on maps of Europe and other parts of the world. In these maps he used new information to correct many inaccuracies in the maps of the ancient Alexandrian geographer Ptolemy, which for hundreds of years had been the standard source for mapmakers. Mercator was the first to use the word “atlas” for a group of maps. See also Map.