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.