1512-1594

Flemish Geographer and Cartographer

The word "atlas" to define a collection of maps was coined by Gerardus Mercator, who is best known for his 1569 invention of a new system of projection for marine charts, called the Mercator projection, which revolutionized cartography as well as nautical navigation.

The son of a shoemaker, Mercator was born Gerhard de Kremer on March 5, 1512, in Rupelmonde, Flanders (now Belgium). His name was later latinized to Gerardus Mercator. Mercator began his education in Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, where he studied Christian doctrine, dialectics, and Latin. From there, he continued his education at the University of Louvain, studying philosophy and the humanities and graduating in 1532 in geography, geometry, and astronomy. While at university, Mercator was a mathematical pupil and assistant to Gemma Frisius (1508-1555), a physician, astronomer, and mathematician for whom he worked as an instrument-maker and globe-maker after graduating.

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