where was gerardus mercator born

When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. In February 1544 he was suspected as a Lutheran because of his Protestant beliefs and imprisoned for seven months in the Rupelmonde castle. "[14] It also sold in large quantities for much of the rest of the century with a second edition in 1572 and a third edition in the atlas of 1595. The contents of the library provide an insight into Mercator's intellectual studies but the mathematics books are the only ones to have been subjected to scholarly analysis: they cover arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, surveying, architecture, fortification, astronomy, astrology, time measurement, calendar calculation, scientific instruments, cartography and applications. 18 (11thed.). This work entailed supplementing the maps of the 1585 and 1589 with 28 unpublished maps of Mercator covering the northern countries, creating four maps of the continents and a world map, the printing of Mercator's account of the creation and finally the addition of eulogies and Walter Ghim's biography of Mercator. Gerardus Mercator was born on March 5, 1512, in a St. Johann hospice in Rupelmonde, Glanders, in the Burgundian Netherlands, now in Belgium. Quick Info Born 5 March 1512 Rupelmonde, Burgundian Netherlands (now Belgium) Died 2 December 1594 Duisburg, Duchy of Cleves (now Germany) Summary Gerardus Mercator was a Flemish map-maker and geographer who is best known for the map projection which bears his name. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. This Atlasthe term still used to indicate a collection of mapswas never fully realized. The first of these was a new definitive version of Ptolemy's maps. He left the university because he did not want to become a philosopher unable to reconcile the teachings of Aristotle to the teachings of the Bible about the origin of the Earth. [am], Apart from a revision of the map of Europe in 1572 there would be no more large wall maps and Mercator began to address the other tasks that he had outlined in the Cosmographia. Age Another printing followed in 1602, and further maps were added in a later edition of 1606, usually called the MercatorHondius Atlas.. 1549) with whom Mercator would be apprenticed. In addition, Mercator had an interests in mathematics, astronomy, cosmography, terrestrial magnetism, history and theology. His sons were now growing to manhood and he encouraged them to embark on his own profession. He moved to Duisburg in 1552 and opened a cartographic workshop in anticipation of the requirement for maps. [q] He certainly read widely but succeeded only in uncovering more contradictions between the world of the Bible and the world of geography, a hiatus which would occupy him for the rest of his life. Mercator would follow similar precepts later in life, with problematic outcomes. views 3,806,880 updated May 23 2018 MERCATOR, GERARDUS (OR GERHARD KREMER) ( b. Rupelmonde, Flanders, 5 March 1512; d. Duisburg, Germany, 2 December 1594) geography. ), Netherlandish school of cartography and geography, Kultur- und Stadthistorisches Museum, Duisburg, Germany. Today Gerardus Mercator would be 511 years old. In 1564 Mercator created a map of Lorraine and the British Isles. Gerard Kremer, (born March 5, 1512, Rupelmonde, Flandersdied Dec. 2, 1594, Duisburg, Duchy of Cleve), Flemish cartographer. He put his newly learned talents to work in a burst of productivity. Mercator was a devout Christian born into a Catholic family at a time when Martin Luther's Protestantism was gaining ground. Gerardus Mercator, orig. The Geographical Society of London was founded in 1830 as an institution to promote the advancement of geographical science. By the final edition the number of his maps in the atlas declined to less than 50 as updated new maps were added. This period of his life is clouded in uncertainty. 1556332. Mercator is the Latin form of this name and means merchant. Gerardus Mercator. During his time at the school the headmaster was Georgius Macropedius, and under his guidance Geert would study the Bible, the trivium (Latin, logic and rhetoric) and classics such as the philosophy of Aristotle, the natural history of Pliny and the geography of Ptolemy. [33] He was not alone; over the years to come many more would flee from the oppressive Catholicism of Brabant and Flanders to tolerant cities such as Duisburg. This section included maps of the British Isles. Also he was a close friend and correspondent of Philip Melanchthon, one of the principal Lutheran reformers. [11] The gores were to be engraved on copper, instead of wood, and the text was to be in an elegant italic script instead of the heavy Roman lettering of the early globes. [41][42][43][44] Mercator's reticence shows that he was clearly aware of the political nature of the pro-Catholic map which showed all the Catholic religious foundations and omitted those created by Protestant Henry VIII; moreover, it was engraved with text demeaning the history of England and praising that of Catholic Ireland and Scotland. Once there, he became a well-known figure. [38] Bartholemew, his second son, showed great academic promise and in 1562 (aged 22) he took over the teaching of his father's three-year-long lecture courseafter Mercator had taught it once only! He was an intellectual, a mathematician, and an innovator. Copyright 2023 History Today Ltd. Company no. Gerardus Mercator (15121594) Flemish geographer and cartographer Quick Reference (1512-1594) Dutch cartographer and geographer. On 5 March 2015, Google celebrated his 503rd birthday with a Google Doodle.[bb]. He was appointed as the Court Cosmographer to Duke Wilhelm of Cleve in 1564. He matriculated from the University of Louvain on August 29, 1530 with philosophy and humanities. The only known copy of the sale catalogue[61] perished in the Second World War but fortunately a manuscript copy had been made by Van Raemdonck in 1891 and this was rediscovered in 1987. He was released after seven months and resumed his former way of life. When the father passed away, Geert and his siblings moved to Herzogenbusch, which is located about 80 km south of Amsterdam. As an adult Mercator had family connections to Molanus, a religious reformer who would later have to flee Leuven. In addition, on the base of the memorial, there is an epigram:[ap]. (1512-94). Title. His marriage to Barbara Schellekens was in September 1536 and Arnold, the first of their six children, was born a year later.[12]. Public recognition of his accomplishments came in 1564 with his appointment as court cosmographer to Duke Wilhelm of Cleve. The son of a shoemaker, Mercator was born Gerhard de Kremer on March 5, 1512, in Rupelmonde, Flanders (now Belgium). Mercator 1569 world map#Prime meridian and magnetic pole, "Marco Polo's Java and Locach on Mercator's world maps of 1538 and 1569, and globe of 1541", "New life for an old atlas with a new world view. The next section was published in 1585 and consisted of newly created maps of France, Germany and the Netherlands. Gerardus Mercator (/drrds mrketr/;[a][b][c] 5 March 1512 2 December 1594)[d] was a Flemish geographer, cosmographer and cartographer. ThoughtCo. During that period he also began to build his reputation as the foremost geographer of the century with a series of printed cartographic works: in 1537 a map of Palestine, in 1538 a map of the world on a double heart-shaped projection, and about 1540 a map of Flanders. 's-Hertogenbosch (Duke's Forest) is Bois-le-Duc in French and Herzogenbusch in German, colloquially Le Bois or Den Bosch. [36] The first section is prefaced by Mercator's ideas on magnetism, the central thesis being that magnetic compasses are attracted to a single pole (not a dipole) along great circles through that pole. The brethren were also renowned for their thoroughness and discipline, well attested by Erasmus who had attended the school forty years before Mercator.[l]. A second collection of 22 maps was published covering Italy, Greece and the Balkans. He returned to the Louvain in 1534 to study mathematics under Gemma Frisius but found it difficult to continue as he had no mathematical background. The dedications of three of these works witness Mercator's access to influential patrons: the Holy Land was dedicated to Franciscus van Cranevelt who sat on the Great Council of Mechelen, the map of Flanders was dedicated to the Emperor himself and the globe was dedicated to Nicholas Perrenot, the emperor's chief advisor. His incomplete works were published by his son in 1595. He constructed the first terrestrial globe in 1535 with the help of Gemma Frisius and Van der Heyden. His name at birth was Gerard de Cremer or de Kremer. He lived during a time of religious strife and for a time was imprisoned for heresy. The dedicatee of the world map was more surprising: Johannes Drosius, a fellow student who, as an unorthodox priest, may well have been suspected of Lutheran heresy. From 1535 to 1536 he participated in a project to create a terrestrial globe and in 1537 he worked on a celestial globe. He also wrote on the gospels and the Old Testament. Such doubt was heresy at the University and it is quite possible that he had already said enough in classroom disputations to come to the notice of the authorities:[m] fortunately he did not put his sentiments into print. [t] In 1539/40 he made a map of Flanders and in 1541 a terrestrial globe. Their locations could be a hundred miles out after a long voyage because a course of constant direction at sea (a rhumb line) did not correspond to a straight line on their chart. This time Gerardus played a bigger role in its creation. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The siege was lifted but the financial losses to the town and its traders, including Mercator, were great. The commissions and patronage of such wealthy individuals would provide an important source of income throughout his life. MERCATOR, GERARDUS [latinized form of Gerhard Kremer ] (1512-1594), Flemish mathematician and geographer, was born at Rupelmonde, in Flanders, on the 5th of March 1512. Beazley, Charles Raymond (1911). [6] He lived in one of the teaching colleges, the Castle College, and, although he was classified as a pauper, he rubbed shoulders with richer students, amongst whom were the anatomist Andreas Vesalius, the statesman Antoine Perrenot, and the theologian George Cassander, all destined to fame and all lifelong friends of Mercator. His inclination to Protestantism, and frequent absences from Leuven to gather information for his maps, had aroused suspicions; he was one of 43 citizens so charged. By the time he was age 24, Mercator was a superb engraver, an outstanding calligrapher, and a highly skilled scientific-instrument maker. [ay] He has been modelled in sand and giant figures. Mercators family had moved from Germany to Flanders shortly before he was born. Corrections? Encyclopdia Britannica. [25] He also returned to his work on a large up-to-date and highly detailed wall map of Europe[23] which was, he had already claimed on his 1538 world map, very well advanced. Moreover, he brought back to Leuven a freshly acquired taste for geography. I liked not only the description of the Earth but the structure of the whole machinery of the world."[s]. Many of the pages were assembled from dissected Mercator maps and in addition there are thirty maps from the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of Abraham Ortelius. Forty years later they were still co-operating, Dee using Mercator's maps to convince the English court to finance Martin Frobisher's expeditions and Mercator still avidly seeking information of new territories. A final one carried him off in 1594 at the age of 82 and he was buried in the Salvatorkirche in Duisburg. [22], Mercator was apprehended in Rupelmonde and imprisoned in the castle. His parents were Hubert and Emerentia Kremer; shortly after Gerardus Mercator was born, the family had moved from Germany to Flanders. But the university authorities stood behind him. Gerardus Mercator was born in Rupelmonde (county of Flanders) on March 5, 1512 during a visit of his parents . He was born to relatively poor parents. As a child, called Geert, he was surrounded by adults who were possibly followers of Geert Groote, who placed meditation, contemplation and biblical study over ritual and liturgyand who also founded the school of the Brethren of the Common Life at 's-Hertogenbosch. 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. He corrected the problems with the loxodrome also known as the rhumb line or sperical helix line and created a new globe in 1541. The arrival of Mercator on the cartographic scene would have been noted by the cognoscenti who purchased Gemma's globe the professors, rich merchants, prelates, aristocrats and courtiers of the emperor Charles V at nearby Brussels. Mercator's early maps were in large formats suitable for wall mounting but in the second half of his life, he produced over 100 new regional maps in a smaller format suitable for binding into his Atlas of 1595. The main text of the epitaph is a summary of his life lauding him as "the foremost mathematician of his time who crafted artistic and accurate globes showing the heaven from the inside and the Earth from the outside greatly respected for his wide erudition, particularly in theology, and famous on account of his piety and respectability in life." At this time Mercator began studying with Gemma Frisius, a theoretical mathematician, physician and astronomer, and Gaspar a Myrica, an engraver and goldsmith. The globes are lost but Mercator describes them in a letter to Philip Melanchthon[ab] in which he declares that the globes were rotated on the top of an astronomical clock made for Charles V by Juanelo Turriano (Janellus). Having studied at Bois-le-Duc and Louvain (where he matriculated on the 29th of August 1530, and became licentiate in October 1532), he met Gemma Frisius, a pupil of Apian of Ingolstadt, who at the request of the emperor Charles V. had settled . This was a substantial enterprise involving the manufacture of the spheres, printing the gores, building substantial stands, packing and distributing them all over Europe. He died of a third stroke and cerebral hemorrhage on December 2, 1594, in Duisburg, the duchy of Cleves which is now located in Germany. [aa] Mercator never accepted the privileges and voting rights of a burgher for they came with military responsibilities which conflicted with his pacifist and neutral stance. The son of a cobbler, Mercator grew up in a poor family. [8][9] He was a controversial figure who, from time to time, was in conflict with the church authorities because of his humanist outlook and his break from Aristotelian views of the world: his own views of geography were based on investigation and observation. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. After two years of study which led him to Antwerp and Mechelen he emerged from his personal crisis, fortified in his faith, with less enthusiasm for philosophical speculation. Omissions? Flemish geographer, cosmographer and cartographer (1512-1594) - Gerardus Mercator was born in Rupelmonde (town in East Flanders, Belgium) on March 5th, 1512 and died in Duisburg (city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) on December 2nd, 1594 at the age of 82. This caused the map to be fairly accurate at the center but produced distorted shapes of land masses at the sides. Gerardus Mercator was born on March 5th, 1512 in Rupelmonde, Flanders. Mercator then began to execute a series of publications intended to describe the creation of the world and its subsequent history. Strokes in the early 1590s partly paralysed Mercator and left him almost blind. After having a stroke in 1590 he was unable to complete any of his projects. After seven months Mercator was released for lack of evidence against him but others on the list suffered torture and execution: two men were burnt at the stake, another was beheaded and two women were entombed alive.[20]. In 1552 Mercator moved to Duisburg in the Duchy of Cleves in Germany, where he enjoyed the favour of the duke. "Gerardus Mercator." In the 1560s Mercator began to develop and perfect his own map projection in an effort to help merchants and navigators more effectively plan a course over long distances by plotting it on straight lines. [28] Apart from a possible short visit to Duisburg in 1562[29] the two men did not meet but they corresponded frequently and by good fortune a number of their letters are preserved. Gisbert was either the brother or uncle of Hubert. Also known as: Gerard de Cremer, Gerard de Kremer. [49] This huge volume (400 pages) was greeted with acclaim by scholars throughout Europe and Mercator himself considered it to be his greatest achievement up to that time. He created the maps of Lorraine and the British Isles in 1564 of which the latter was used for political purposes against Protestant Queen Elizabeth. The problem was the contradiction between the authority of Aristotle and his own biblical study and scientific observations, particularly in relation to the creation and description of the world. [1][2] Along with Gemma Frisius and Abraham Ortelius, he is generally considered one of the founders of the Netherlandish school of cartography and geography. He graduated with his masters degree in 1532. See, The trivium and the quadrivium together constitute the, There is uncertainty as to whether he was away in Antwerp for a single long period or whether he simply made a number of visits. Gerardus Mercator of Rupelmonde at the age of 62Frans Hogen-burg made this portrait out of affection for him. [10] Mercator was completely out of his depth but, with the help and friendship of Gemma, who was only four years older, he succeeded in mastering the elements of mathematics within two years and the university granted him permission to tutor private students. In 1564 Mercator published his map of Britain, a map of greatly improved accuracy which far surpassed any of his previous representations. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. It was essentially an act of reverence by one scholar for another, a final epitaph for the Ptolemy who had inspired Mercator's love of geography early in his life. [32] Celestial globes were a necessary adjunct to the intellectual life of rich patrons[y] and academics alike, for both astronomical and astrological studies, two subjects which were strongly entwined in the sixteenth century. [39] Rumold, the third son, would spend a large part of his life in London's publishing houses providing for Mercator a vital link to the new discoveries of the Elizabethan age. In 1554 he published a map of Europe that he had begun at Leuven, and between 1559 and 1562 he taught mathematics in the grammar school. Had he published such a work in Louvain he would again be laying himself open to charges of heresy. He then published 27 of the maps originally prepared by the Greek geographer Ptolemy, with corrections and commentary in 1578, under the title Tabulae Geographicae C. Ptolemei ad mentem autoris restitutae et emendatae. She holds a Certificate of Advanced Study in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from California State University. The words of the latter on the death of heretics convey the atmosphere of that time:[w]. Statues of Gerardus Mercator can be found in several cities across the world and there are many buildings, universities, streets, ships and even an asteroid named after him. [35] One year later, in 1560, he secured the appointment of his friend Jan Vermeulen (Molanus) as rector and then blessed Vermeulen's marriage to his daughter Emerantia. John Dee, the English mathematician, astrologer and sage, spent time in Louvain from 1548 and he and Mercator became close friends. Around this time Mercator also received and executed a very special order for the Holy Roman Emperor a pair of small globes, the inner ("fist-size") Earth was made of wood and the outer celestial sphere was made of blown crystal glass engraved with diamond and inlaid with gold. Mercator eventually mastered mathematics, geography, and astronomy and his work, combined with that of Frisius and a Myrica made Leuven a center for the development of globes, maps, and astronomical instruments. [26][27] Dee and Mercator were both passionately interested in the same topics and they quickly established a close rapport which lasted throughout their lives. His father was a cobbler, but the surname meant merchant and Gerhard turned it into Latin as Mercator after his father and mother died when he was in his teens.

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