Geradus Mercator Map Maker

Gerard Mercator was born, March 5^th 1512, in the hospice of St Johann in Rupelmonde. Gerard’s older brother Gisbert was a priest at the hospice. Gerard was the 7^th of 11 children. The father was a poor cobbler, and the family survived mainly on bread for the first 5 years of Gerard’s life.

At school Gerard studied Latin, religion and arithmetic. By the time he was seven years old he was able to speak and to read Latin fluently. Although others in his family became priests, Gerard could not accept the teachings of Aristotle. He was not going to publicly disagree with Aristotle because it would be heresy against the Catholic Church. Gerard could not believe the Catholic Church’s creation story either. What he could believe in was the land that god had made, he traveled extensively and fell in love with geography. Gerard found his calling mapping God’s creation.

Mercator is Latin for “merchant”. Gerard did not take the name Mercator until after his mother’s death around 1528. Maps at the time were very political because they showed which countries owned what, which cities were bigger than others.

Mercator returned to the school in Louvain in 1534 where he now studied mathematics. He had difficulty until he found the math that dealt with cosmography. He also learned to be an engraver and instrument maker and taught at the school for his income.

In 1538, Mercator produced his first world map. This was the first map to show the Americas stretching from the north to the south and the first time that North America was called North America.

In 1569, he first used straight longitudinal and latitudinal lines in a “Mercator projection”. Mercator also coined the word “Atlas” for the 18 wall maps of the world he produced.

On December 2 1594, after a third stroke, Gerard Mercator passed away. One of his sons completed the maps in progress.