MERCATOR: Chosen Olde World Map-Maker of the 16th Century (Includes 'The Map')

Posted on 5/1/22 at 1:41 pm

Posted by Liberator

Revelation 20:10-12

Member since Jul 2020

9071 posts

Posted on 5/1/22 at 1:41 pm

For all Olde Map buffs, at this link is a spectacular channel devoted to Gerardus Mercator, credited by historians as the Father of Map-Making or Cartography.

LINK ]Mercator Maps, History, Impact, Projections

*THE MAP CAN BE ENLARGED AND LOCATIONS ZOOMED IN*

The site requires a wee bit of getting used to navigating its unique features, but it is well worth it. It is easy to become immersed in Mercator's great world map (Fwiw, the site has won some design awards.)

quote:
In the 16th century, Gerardus Mercator, a Flemish cartographer devised a new way of depicting the world on a flat plane. We set off to explore his map in order to illustrate his biggest blunders, unearth curious facts and explain the advantages that make this representation of the globe still relevant today.

(A portrait of Gerardus Mercator from the book entitled Atlas, or Cosmographical Meditations on the Frame for the World and its Form, 1595)

*THE ABOVE ATLAS CAN BE ENLARGED AND LOCATIONS ZOOMED IN*

North Pole area in extreme detail -- includes magnetic "North Pole" rock. The Island of 'Frisland' was apparently important enough to this map inset for Mercator to isolate it the upper left (Frisland: located between Iceland and Greenland)

(A very detailed "Rvssia," Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia)

MERCATOR: Map-Maker of The World

Gerardus Mercator has become an iconic name in the science of cartographic projection, but regrettably, all of his other achievements have been mostly neglected. Shortly after the publication of his first map of the world, Mercator, still a young man, set out to make a globe of the Earth, which he completed in 1541.

The globe not only earned Mercator recognition and fame among his fellow mapmakers, it also largely served as the driving force for his introduction to the ruler of Holy Roman Empire Charles V, who would repeatedly commission him to make astronomical instruments and instructions on using them.

In 1512, the family of cobbler Hubert Kremer who had resided in the tiny town of Rupelmonde (then part of the Netherlands) celebrated the birth of his seventh child, a boy named Gerhard. Decades later, he was destined to earn world fame as an outstanding cartographer. In his youth, Gerhard lost his father and means of sustenance, but fortunately his uncle Gisbert stepped in to take his nephew under his wing and became the boy’s guardian, thus letting Gerhard receive a decent education at a gymnasium.

Following the fashion of the era, Gerhard changed his German name Gerhard Kremer (merchant) to its full Latin equivalent of Gerardus Mercator. He moved to Louven, where he graduated from the local university, one of the best in Northern Europe by the standards of those days, and dedicated himself to making globes and geographic charts.

LEGACY

The latter pursuit earned him international distinction. The world-renowned mapmaker, as far as we know, never traveled by sea, but it was Mercator alone that created a groundbreaking map using a principle that would lay the foundation for the entire science of naval navigation. New and More Complete Representation of The Terrestrial Globe Properly Adapted for Use in Navigation was the title of his work in Latin, published in August 1569 that incorporated all the knowledge of geography that was available at that time.

Mercator’s projection is still used for making nautical and aeronautical charts. In a somewhat modified version, it is used for topographic maps of dry land in the United States, Canada, France, Germany and other countries.

It is also the basis for Google and Yandex maps and can be found on most GPS navigation systems known to any driver. A trace of Mercator’s heritage is found even in space research: all images of the Earth taken by the Sentinel-2 and Landsat satellites are shown in his projection.

Mercator’s map turned out to be so handy and convenient that 450 years later we can still see it and enjoy its benefits in our daily routines. And sometimes, when a picture of the world unfolds before our mind’s eye, many of us see it in the image of the Mercator projection.

The Elephant in the Room: How were such world maps calculations made in the 1500s (credited to Mercator) of land, coasts, interiors, deserts and mountains base logically other than from on Air Flight?

It is conceded that there are "errors" in his map; There places that have changed, disappearing islands and land masses, (marked by named cities, rivers, mountain ranges, fortress markings and other features) and other geographical changes since the 1500s. Among them, the island of Frisland (south of Iceland), Antarctic land mass as well as the detailed land located in the Arctic region -- conspicuous by amount of land and lack of ice in both regions.

Then again, "mistakes" are one thing; But then again -- how are definitive places WITH NAMES "mistakes"?

Conspicuously Missing: All of the Great Lakes in North America do not exist. Instead it is "replaced" by an over-extended St Lawrence River. There is also coincidentally an area on the map named "Chilaga" (at about the same approximate location of where "Chicago" would be.)

There are very plausible theories already available that explain how land AND water levels *could* have been altered during and after 1500s -- as well as plausibly explaining disappearing lands and islands on maps at the time -- but we'll save that discussion for another day.

Mercator's Big Map also made mention then of helpful navigation details, meridian line, latitudes & longitudes, specific side-notes, and curiously -- strange animals referred to as "Monsters" and thought to be "myth" and "legends" of the past; yet, the creatures keep on showing up on other maps throughout early map-makers' history and otherwise (specifically like "Dragons".)

IMPORTANT:

This information is NOT about "Flat" Earth nor will you find any maps of it here. It is about MERCATOR.

For the sake of the board and respect of fellow posters, let's kindly confine the convo and exchanges to the subjects or theories at hand. Thank you for your courtesy.