MERCATOR; THE MAN WHO MAPPED THE PLANET. [Biography of Flemish cartographer Gerhard Mercator - Gerardus Mercator.]

Crane, Nicholas. [Gerhard Mercator - Gerardus Mercator, 1512-1594.]

ISBN 10: 0297646656 / ISBN 13: 9780297646655

Published by London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, September 2002., 2002

British third printing. xiv, 348 pages. Hardcover: H 24cm x L 16cm. Dust jacket lightly rubbed with slight bumping at spine and flap heads. Blue boards, light bumping at board corners. Pages are bright and clean. Binding retains some crispness. A near fine copy in a very good+ copy. With two sections of plates on unpaged leaves, b/w illustrations amongst text, A Personal Note to the Reader, Epilogue, Notes, Chronology of Mercator's Principal Works, Select Bibliography, and Index. Publisher's summary: "Explores the life of Gerhard Mercator, who created the map and solved the dimensional riddle that plagued cosmographers for years, revealing a man who attended one of Europe's top universities but was persecuted by the Inquisition." ISBN 0297646656. Seller Inventory # PXZP-14144

Synopsis:

Gerhard Mercator (1512-1594) was born at the dawn of the Age of Discovery, when the world was beginning to be discovered and carved up by navigators, geographers and cartographers. Mercator was the greatest and most ingenious cartographer of them all: it was he who coined the word 'atlas' and solved the riddle of converting the three-dimensional globe into a two-dimensional map while retaining true compass bearings. It is Mercator's Projection that NASA is using today to map Mars. How did Mercator reconcile his religious beliefs with a science that would make Christian maps obsolete? How did a man whose imagination roamed continents endure imprisonment by the Inquisition? Crane brings this great man vividly to life, underlying it with the maps themselves: maps that brought to a rapt public wonders as remarkable as today's cyber-world. Nick Crane's new book is a scintillating account of the climax of the map-makers' century (and of Mercator's life) - the miraculous compression of the planet which revolutionised navigation and has become the most common worldview we have.

About the Author: Nicholas Crane is a geographer, adventurer and prize-winning writer.

Bibliographic Details

Title: MERCATOR; THE MAN WHO MAPPED THE PLANET. [...
Publisher: London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, September 2002.
Publication Date: 2002
Binding: Hardcover
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included