1st+Period+-+Gerardus+Mercator

=1st Period - Gerardus Mercator= By:Precious L

Date of birth:March 5th,1512

Location of birth:Rupelmonde,Flanders

Parents’ names:Hubert and Emerentia Kremer

Family background: He had a wife and kids.His parents lived in Gangelt a village in the Duchy of Julich. Huberts brother Gisbert was a priest. August 1536 Mercator married Barbara Schellekens and that same year she gave birth to their first son Arnold. Their three sons became mapmakers for a time Rumold their youngest son became his fathers representive in England and he supervised publication of the first complete edition of the Mercator World Atlas.

Date of death:December 2,1594

Location of death/grave:St. Saviour's church,Duisburg

Education: Mercator studied at the university of Louvain. He studied humanities and Philosiphy and received a masters degree in 1532. When he was in college he lived and studied at several college houses around the city. If Mercator did well he could go on and study for a doctoral degree. The student life at the University was strict. There he studied the Ancient Greeks and Romans whose writings were the authorities on almost every subject.

Career: He was a flemish Geographer who became the leading mapmaker. In 1536 Gerardus Mercator decided to go into buisness for himself at Louvain. In 1569 he published his famous map for navigators using the Mercator projection. In 1554 he published a map of Europe. In 1578 he published a corrected version of Ptmoley `s maps. During 1589 he published the second volume of the Atlas.

Legacy: Mercator was famous for showing the roughly balled-shaped Earth on a flat sheet of paper. That method was called the Mercator projection it provided an idea for navigation In 1541 he makes a globe of the world that was first to show the Rhumb lines.He introduced

the term atlas for a collection of maps. He developed the Mercator projection in 1569. He was the leading map maker of the 15th century. Additional/Interesting information: The Mercator projection is still used today for navigation. He produced a collection of maps and called it an atlas. At the University of Louvain they dressed in a purple robe. He got married august 1536 to his first spouse Barbara Schelleken. In 1589 he got married to his second spouse Gertrude Vierlings. He died at the age of 82. In 1540 he made a map of Flanders. In 1544 he was arrested for Heresy and imprisoned for seven months. Mercator first biographer was Walter Ghim his neighbor in Duisburg. Mercator`s death was by his son Rumold in 1595.

Sources Cited (Gerardus Mercator – 1st Period)

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