Geographer, mapmaker, and mathematician
Born: Rupelmonde 5/03/1512
Died: Duisburg 2/12/1594

Mercator became a maker of instruments for drawing maps and making field surveys. He produced his first map, the map of The Holy Land, in 1537. In 1538 he produced a map of Flanders and in 1541 he completed a terrestrial globe.

Mercator’s famous map of the world, drawn on the projection that carries his name, was published in Duisburg in 1569. The projection is very useful to navigators because straight lines between any two points on such a map show a constant compass direction for the course of a ship.

Mercator worked on maps of Europe and other parts of the world. In these maps he used new information to correct many inaccuracies in the maps of the ancient Alexandrian geographer Ptolemy, which for hundreds of years had been the standard source for mapmakers. Mercator was the first to use the word “atlas” for a group of maps