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Gerardus Mercator: Father of Modern Mapmaking

Age 10-12
Grade 5-9

Ann Louise Heinrichs

Gerardus Mercator: Father of Modern Mapmaking

Library Binding (Compass Point Books Sept. 1, 2007) , 1st edition
Sixteenth-century geographer Gerardus Mercator was born in 1512 in Rupelmonde, Flanders. He lived during a time of religious strife and for a time was imprisoned for heresy. Mercator began his career as a maker of mathematical instruments, but he won lasting renown with his world map of 1569, which introduced a new way of showing the spherical earth on a flat sheet of paper. This method, called the Mercator projection, is still used today. His 1585 book, titled Atlas, was the first to use that word to describe a collection of maps.
Series
Signature Lives: Scientific Revolution
ISBN
0756533120 / 9780756533120
Pages
112
Weight
12.0 oz.
Dimensions
6.0 x 0.5 in.

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