THE WORLD OF GERARD MERCATOR: The Mapmaker Who Revolutionized Geography
Andrew Taylor, . . Walker, $26 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-8027-1377-3
Maps today strike us as fairly innocuous charts of the world. But 500 years ago, an era when political power and religious authority were in flux, maps were fraught with implications that made owning the "wrong" map a cause for execution. Into this world came Flemish mapmaker Gerard Mercator (1512–1594), whose new technique forged modern cartography as we know it. Mercator devised an ingenious compromise between accurately depicting the varying lengths of latitudinal circles between the poles and the equator and accurately depicting geographic details that is the basis for nearly all maps in use today. British historian Taylor (
Reviewed on: 09/20/2004
Genre: Nonfiction
Hardcover - 291 pages - 978-0-00-710080-4
Paperback - 288 pages - 978-0-00-710081-1