Mercator continued his cartography work for the rest of his life, publishing parts of his atlas until his death in 1594. He coined the term “atlas” (named after the Greek mythological figure who held the world on his shoulders) to describe a collection of maps. In addition to publishing his famous projection, Mercator was the pioneer of another geographical tool we use to this day. Despite these distortions, Mercator’s projection is still heavily used today. Because the projection was intended to be a reference for navigation and not land geography, the landmasses on the map are not necessarily proportional to their actual size at higher latitudes, landmasses appear larger than their actual size. All the latitude and longitude lines intersected at 90-degree angles. Mercator’s projection laid out the globe as a flattened version of a cylinder. They could use latitude and longitude lines to plot a straight route. This map, with its Mercator projection, was designed to help sailors navigate around the globe. In 1569, Mercator published his epic world map. After spending a few months in prison, he was released and continued his studies. But in 1544, Mercator was arrested under suspicion of heresy the traveling he did for research had made church officials wary. He continued studying the sciences and making maps and instruments for wealthy, and sometimes high-profile, clients. These included an early version of his world map, which showed the globe as a heart-shaped projection. We use State-of-the-Art technology to capture and reproduce the vivid colours and intricate detail of these iconic maps. As his reputation grew, Mercator published several maps of places around the world. Browse our range of spectacular World Maps from the Golden Age of Cartography. After graduating, Mercator developed his skills as an engraver, calligrapher, and geographer, and then began making globes and scientific instruments. He graduated from the University of Louvain in 1532, where he studied mathematics, geography, and astronomy. The son of a cobbler, Mercator grew up in a poor family. Mercator was born in Flanders (located in modern-day Belgium) in 1512. Mercator’s view of the world is one that has endured through the centuries and still helps navigators today. In this paper, the map of the world, which (as in Ptolemy's Geography) opens Ortelius's Theatrum, is analysed to show how Ortelius's concept of space was very different from Ptolemy's. His most famous work, the Mercator projection, is a geographical chart where the spherical globe is flattened into a two-dimensional map, with latitude and longitude lines drawn in a straight grid. If you have ever seen a map of the world in a classroom or in an atlas, chances are you have seen the work of Gerardus Mercator, a 16th-century Flemish cartographer (mapmaker).
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