Five hundred years ago Gerard Kremer was born in Rupelmonde, near Antwerp. The son of a poor shoemaker, whose humanist ambitions later led him to take the Latin name Mercator, grew up to become one of the greatest scientists of the Low Countries.

This year, Mercator year, there are all sorts of commemorations and initiatives in the pipeline in the area where he was born: http://www.mercator2012.be/. Read te Low Countries Yearbook  article about Mercator here.

Mercator was the first to map the whole world in one book, which he baptised ‘atlas’. Only a few complete copies of that monumental masterpiece, the Atlas sive Cosmographicæ Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura, which was still unfinished when he died, have been preserved.

From Leuven to Duisburg
Thanks to a rich uncle, Mercator was able to get the best teaching, with the humanist playwright Marcropedius in’s Hertogenbosch, the Frisian geographer Gemma Frisius and at the workshop of the talented goldsmith, engraver and globe builder, Amyricius, in Leuven.

After his studies and apprenticeship Mercator established himself as an independent instrument builder and took his first steps as a geographer and globe builder for important clients like Charles V.

A follower of Luther, Mercator was imprisoned in the Graventoren, or Count’s Tower,  in Rupelmonde at the peak of the religious vicissitudes in the 16th century. Eventually he moved with his family to Duisburg in Germany. There he managed to publish his most important work, such as his first pioneering map of Europe, which for the first time included findings that corrected the ancient theories of Ptolomaeus.

The Mercator projection
He refined his knowledge as a cartographer and developed the revolutionary Mercator projection, which is important for shipping even today. It is still impossible to project the spherical surface on a flat surface without distortions appearing. Mercator’s projection, based on his knowledge of the workings of the compass, deliberately deals with these distortions, so that they become extremely user-friendly for shipping navigation.

With his beautifully coloured, precise and clear maps Mercator is rightly considered to be the inventor of the modern world view which, with the discoveries in the New World and with the new scientific knowledge that was able to be spread through printed books, extended the limits of human knowledge and abilities.