Septentrionalium Terrarum descriptio. Per Gerardum Mercatorem Cum Privilegio

• Main Authors: Mercator, Gerhard, 1512-1594, Hondius, Jodocus, 1563-1612
• Format: Map
• Language: unknown
• Published: Cornelis Claes 1607
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~323993~90093244; https://media.davidrumsey.com/MediaManager/srvr?mediafile=/Size4/RUMSEY~8~1/185/10501061.jpg

This is the second Mercator Hondius edition, after the first in 1606; editions of the Mercator Hondius atlas continued to 1641. Mercator published his edition of Ptolemy in 1578 (see our Bertius edition 11296.000), the first part of his atlas in 1585, and his son Rumold issued the first complete atlas in 1595, the year after Mercator's death. "The earliest biography on Mercator was already published in 1595, as part of the text in the Atlas. It was written by Walter Ghim, Lord Major of Duisburg, the place where Mercator spent half his lifetime. The following is mainly borrowed from Ghim, supplemented with information obtained from the many excellent articles published in Special Volume no. 6 of the Duisburger Forschungen, 1962. Gerard (Gerhard) Mercator was born on 5 March 1512 at Rupelmonde, Flanders, where his parents, both living in the county of Gillich (Jiilich), happened to be. He spent his childhood in Gillich and went to the University of Leuven where he was registered as 'a student without means' on 29 August 1530. He obtained a 'magisterii gradum' in 1532 but stayed at Leuven where he then devoted himself to the study of philosophy. The problems of the creation of the Universe and the Earth interested him in particular; this is reflected by his works, written in later years. As his personal opinions did not agree with the scholastic philosophy as lectured at Leuven, he left the city for Antwerp; where he could contemplate without being influenced. Convinced of the importance of exact sciences, for the study of the true configuration of the world, he returned to Leuven, ca. 1535, where he took courses in mathematics, both theoretical and practical, under the guidance of Gemma Frisius. Soon he was recognised as an expert on the construction of mathematical instruments, as a land-surveyor and, after 1537, as a cartographer. He drew his income from these activities after his marriage on 3 August 1536. He also qualified himself as a copper-engraver; he was the first in history to introduce the italic ...