Mercator: The Man Who Mapped the Planet - Softcover

Crane, Nicholas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080506625X ISBN 13: 9780805066258

Publisher: Holt Paperbacks, 2004

Synopsis

“Crane’s book is quite probably destined to become the standard text.”—Simon Winchester, The New York Times

Gerhard Mercator lived in an era of formidable intellectual and scientific advances. At the center of the exploratory vortex were the cartographers who were painstakingly piecing together the evidence to create ever more accurate pictures of the planet. Mercator was the greatest of all of them. His inspiration—the map—solved the dimensional riddle that had vexed cosmographers for so long: How could the three-dimensional globe be converted into a two-dimensional map while retaining true compass bearings? His resulting projection revolutionized navigation and has become the most common worldview. For the first time, people were able to see the world on paper and their place in it.

Nicholas Crane, a geographer himself, has combined a keen eye for historical detail with a gift for vivid storytelling to produce this masterly and highly acclaimed biography of the man who mapped the planet.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Mercator is a vivid biography of the man who created the first modern map of the world.

Born into the age of discovery, Gerard Mercator lived through an extraordinary era of intellectual and scientific expansion. At the centre of this exploratory vortex were the cartographers who were painstakingly piecing together the evidence that would create a complete picture of the planet. Mercator was the greatest of them all - a poor cobbler's boy who attended one of Europe's top universities, was persecuted and imprisoned by the Inquisition, yet survived to produce his eponymous projection and to coin the term 'atlas'. Devoutly religious, yet gripped by the quest for geographical truth, Mercator struggled to reconcile the two, a conflict mirrored by the clash in Europe between humanism and the Church.

Mercator solved the dimensional riddle that had vexed cosmographers for so long: How could the three-dimensional globe be converted into a two-dimensional map while retaining true compass bearings? The Mercator Projection revolutionised navigation and has become the most common worldview.

About the Author

Nicholas Crane, a geographer and adventurer, is the author of two acclaimed books, Two Degrees West and Clear Waters Rising. He lives in London.

Edition details

• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 080506625X
• ISBN 13: 9780805066258
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 432