This article is about the content of the Mercator 1569 World map. For details of the projection, see Mercator projection. For biographical details, see Gerardus Mercator.
The Mercator world map of 1569 is titled Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigantium Emendate Accommodata (Renaissance Latin for "New and more complete representation of the terrestrial globe properly adapted for use in navigation"). The title shows that Gerardus Mercator aimed to present contemporary knowledge of the geography of the world and at the same time 'correct' the chart to be more useful to sailors. This 'correction', whereby constant bearing sailing courses on the sphere (rhumb lines) are mapped to straight lines on the plane map, characterizes the Mercator projection. While the map's geography has been superseded by modern knowledge, its projection proved to be one of the most significant advances in the history of cartography, inspiring the 19th century map historian Adolf Nordenskiöld to write "The master of Rupelmonde stands unsurpassed in the history of cartography since the time of Ptolemy."[2] The projection heralded a new era in the evolution of navigation maps and charts and it is still their basis.
The map is inscribed with a great deal of text. The framed map legends (or cartouches) cover a wide variety of topics: a dedication to his patron and a copyright statement; discussions of rhumb lines; great circles and distances; comments on some of the major rivers; accounts of fictitious geography of the north pole and the southern continent. The full Latin texts and English translations of all the legends are given below. Other minor texts are sprinkled about the map. They cover such topics as the magnetic poles, the prime meridian, navigational features, minor geographical details, the voyages of discovery and myths of giants and cannibals. These minor texts are also given below.
A comparison with world maps before 1569 shows how closely Mercator drew on the work of other cartographers and his own previous works, but he declares (Legend 3) that he was also greatly indebted to many new charts prepared by Portuguese and Spanish sailors in the portolan tradition. Earlier cartographers of world maps had largely ignored the more accurate practical charts of sailors, and vice versa, but the age of discovery, from the closing decade of the fifteenth century, stimulated the integration of these two mapping traditions: Mercator's world map is one of the earliest fruits of this merger.
^This portrait appears in the 1596 version of his Atlas It was made in 1574, when Mercator was 62, by the engraver Frans Hogenberg who contributed many of the topographical images in Civitates Orbis Terrarum. See the German wikipedia and commons.
^Nordenskiöld Facsimile Atlas, p.23
and 28 Related for: Mercator 1569 world map information
The Mercatorworldmap of 1569 is titled Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigantium Emendate Accommodata (Renaissance Latin for "New and...
The Mercator projection (/mərˈkeɪtər/) is a conformal cylindrical map projection presented by Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in...
World map by Gerardus Mercator (1569), first map in the well-known Mercator projection Kunyu Wanguo Quantu (Ming dynasty, 1602) 1652 worldmap by Claes...
the worldmap (1569). The map of Europe on pages 1 and 2 is taken from the 1569worldmap. There are also 2 manuscript maps of Mercator and 13 maps are...
Gerardus Mercator, a 16th-century cartographer Mercator1569worldmapMercator projection, a cartographic projection devised by Gerardus Mercator Rumold...
cartographer Gerardus Mercatorworldmap of 1569 introduced a cylindrical map projection that became the standard map projection known as the Mercator projection...
Cantino planisphere (1502) Piri Reis map (1513) Dieppe maps (c. 1540s-1560s) Mercator1569worldmap Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Ortelius, Netherlands, 1570–1612)...
greatest legacy was the mathematical projection he devised for his 1569worldmap. The Mercator projection is an example of a cylindrical projection in which...
contains the preserve Karkinits'ka Zatoka State Zakaznik. On the Mercator1569worldmap, the bay is named as Golfo de Nigropoli after the city on north...
father's Ptolemaic map of the world from 1569, revised in its overall graphic design. In 1595, a year after his father's death, Rumold Mercator published a supplement...
Gerardus Mercator, which have eight maps derived from the Theatrum.[clarification needed] For the map of Europe, wall map (1554). of the Mercatormap of Scandinavia...
Alexandria in Carmainai never existed. The 1569worldmap of Gerardus Mercator, taken from Ptolemy's second century worldmap, shows Alexandria Carmania further...
system is the worldmap by ‛Ali b. Ahmad al-Sharafi of Sfax in 1571. The projection appears in many Renaissance maps, and Gerardus Mercator used it for...
map projections that have articles of their own on Wikipedia or that are otherwise notable. Because there is no limit to the number of possible map projections...
Around it are islands, two of which are inhabited." Gerardus Mercator'sworldmap of 1569 reflects his reading of Cnoyen's Itinerarium. It also features...
Portuguese map-maker Diogo Homem, one of only two copies of a Map of America by Diego Gutiérrez, part of a Mercator1569worldmap by Gerardus Mercator, a decorative...
Hondius who had started a map-making business in the city. Henricus obtained the original plates of the Mercator1569worldmap, and published a 1606 version...
Scotland, ending the Rising of the North. The Mercator projection is first used in Gerardus Mercator'sworldmap, Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad...
Travels. The landmass of Beach remained in this location on Mercator'sworldmap of 1569, with the amplified description, quoting Marco Polo, Beach provincia...
is intermediate between the two. In 1569, mapmaker Gerardus Mercator first published a map based on his Mercator projection, which uses equally-spaced...
eclipse is observed by Cornelius Gemma. The Mercator projection is first used in Gerardus Mercator'sworldmap Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum...
map was used in 1492 when Christopher Columbus set out on his voyages of discovery. Subsequently, Gerardus Mercator made a practical map of the world...
of Australia? The Magnus Sinus, Java and Locach on the map from Martellus to Mercator, 1491-1569”, presented at "Universum Infinitum, From the German Philosopher...
The Equal Earth map projection is an equal-area pseudocylindrical projection for worldmaps, invented by Bojan Šavrič, Bernhard Jenny, and Tom Patterson...
significantly more detail. In 1569, Gerardus Mercator introduced a map projection of the Earth which is now known as the Mercator projection, with the purpose...