Gerard Mercator and Cartography in Flanders

The Low Countries have played a leading role in the development of cartography. The area was the centre of European trade in the sixteenth century, and good mapmakers like Ortelius, Frisius, Mercator, Plancius, Hondius and others were all working there in that period. Of course it was not only trade which stimulated the demand for maps; there were also intellectual centres like Leuven and Mechlin where cartographical studies were carried out and the technique refined.

There is no doubt that Gerard Mercator, the four-hundredth anniversary of whose death was commemorated in 1994, was one of the most important of this generation of cartographers. Mercator was born Gerard de Cremer in Rupelmonde on 5 March 1512, to a family that originated from the Rhineland (the name

Under the direction of Gemma Frisius from Friesland, Leuven had become an important centre for scientific cartography. Frisius also brought Mercator into contact with the Leuven goldsmith Gaspard van der Heyden, who had already constructed and engraved a globe for Frisius. Van der Heyden imparted the necessary craftsman's and artistic skills to Mercator, who produced various globes together with Frisius and Van der Heyden.

The first map Mercator made in his own right was one of Palestine. This map was particularly useful for Bible study, but it was to put Mercator in prison for

several months in 1544 on suspicion of heresy. After all, in these unsettled times one could be accused of heresy merely for possessing a Bible. Probably this period of imprisonment was one of the reasons Mercator left Flanders in 1552 to settle in Duisburg where there was far greater religious freedom.

So while Mercator received his scientific education in Flanders, he accomplished the major part of his work in Duisburg. His most important map, which signified a revolutionary change in the prevailing picture of the world, was his 1569 world map; this was very reliable because of the projection he had developed. It is largely because of this ‘Mercator projection’ that he is rated as one of the fathers of modern cartography.

Mercator died in Duisburg on 2 December 1594. The following year his son published some of the maps under the name Atlas sive cosmographicae meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et fabricati figura - the first time the word ‘atlas’ was used to refer to a collection of maps. Mercator himself had, in fact, already published some of the maps under the title Galliae tabulae geographicae in 1585. In 1604 the Flemish publisher and cartographer Jodocus Hondius bought the engraved copperplates of the Mercator maps and reprinted them repeatedly. Hondius' successor, J. Janssonius, then took up the task and went on reprinting Mercator's work until 1673.

In addition to maps, Mercator also made various scientific instruments, wrote a little book about italic script, prepared a critical reissue of Ptolemy's maps and made a comparative study of the four gospels.

The image of the world that Mercator created with his cartography was not improved upon until the eighteenth century. Through his correspondence with the Englishmen John Dee and Richard Hakluyt, Mercator also had considerable influence in England. In the nineteenth century his memory was honoured with statues both in Rupelmonde and in Duisburg. He can be regarded as one of the most important scholars of his time.

dirk van assche

Translated by Alison Mouthaan-Gwillim.