Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Gerardus Mercator (/ dʒ ɪ ˈ r ɑːr d ə s m ɜːr ˈ k eɪ t ər /; [a] [b] [c] 5 March 1512 – 2 December 1594) [d] was a Flemish geographer, cosmographer and cartographer.He is most renowned for creating the 1569 world map based on a new projection which represented sailing courses of constant bearing (rhumb lines) as straight lines—an innovation that is still employed in nautical charts.
The Mercator projection (/ m ər ˈ k eɪ t ər /) is a conformal cylindrical map projection first presented by Flemish geographer and mapmaker Gerardus Mercator in 1569. In the 18th century, it became the standard map projection for navigation due to its property of representing rhumb lines as straight lines.
Mercator's 1569 map was a large planisphere, [3] i.e. a projection of the spherical Earth onto the plane. It was printed in eighteen separate sheets from copper plates engraved by Mercator himself. [4]
The Fool's Cap Map of the World is an artistic presentation of a world map created by an unknown artist sometime between 1580 and 1590 CE. The engraving takes the form of a court jester with the face replaced by cordiform (heart-shaped or leaf-shaped) world map based on the designs of cartographers such as Oronce Finé , Gerardus Mercator , and ...
An arctic continent on the Gerardus Mercator map of 1595.. In Greek mythology, the Hyperboreans (Ancient Greek: ὑπερβόρε(ι)οι, romanized: hyperbóre(i)oi, pronounced [hyperbóre(ː)oi̯]; Latin: Hyperborei) were a mythical people who lived in the far northern part of the known world.
Mercator is also credited as the first to use the word "atlas" to describe a collection of maps. In the later years of his life, Mercator resolved to create his Atlas, a book filled with many maps of different regions of the world, as well as a chronological history of the world from the Earth's creation by God until 1568.
He is recognized as the creator of the first modern atlas, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World). Along with Gemma Frisius and Gerardus Mercator, Ortelius is generally considered one of the founders of the Netherlandish school of cartography and geography. He was a notable figure of this school in its golden age (approximately ...
While Vesalius performed ground-breaking work in rediscovering the human body, Gerardus Mercator, as one of the leading cartographers of his time, did the same for rediscovering the outside world. Mercator too came into trouble with the Church because of his beliefs, and spent several months in jail after a conviction for heresy.