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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 While the map's geography has been superseded by modern knowledge, its projection proved to be one of the most significant advances in the history of cartography, inspiring map historian Nordenskiöld to write "The master of Rupelmonde stands unsurpassed in the history of cartography since the time of Ptolemy." 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.
References
- Planisphere here means a rendering of the sphere onto the plane. It has no relation to the star charts as described in the article planisphere.
- See the biography of Mercator by Iris Kockelberg in Mercator: Exploring New Horizons, pp95 –99.
- Monmonier, Chapter 10 and notes at page 200.
- The records of the Plantin Press show that they sold at least 185 copies of the 1569 map in the period 1569–1576 alone. See Leon Voet, Les relations commerciales entre Gerardus Mercator et la maison Plantiniene à Anvers in Duisberger Forschungen, pp.171–232, and Dirk Imhof in Mercator: exploring new horizons, pp105 –107.
- The collections of the Stadt Bibliothek of Breslau, now the library of the University of Wrocław, are described at "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120327031804/http://liber-maps.kb.nl/articles/szykula6.html. Retrieved 2012-03-28.
- Heyer, A. Drei Karten–Mercator in der Breslauer Stadt-Bibliotek. Zeitschrift fur Wissenschaftliche Geographie herausgegeben von J.I.Kettler, vol VII (1890), pp. 379, 474, 507.
- van 't Hoff (1961), page 40.
- van 't Hoff (1961), p.19
- Mercator 1570 atlas, Plate 14
- The publications of Wilhelm Krucken are available from the home page of his web site at Ad maiorem Gerardi Mercatoris gloriam. http://www.wilhelmkruecken.de/
- "Digital image of the BNF copy" (in fr). Gallica.bnf.fr. 1569. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7200344k/f1.item. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
- Heyer, A. Drei Karten von Europa, Britische Inseln, Weltkarte, herausgegeben von der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde. Berlin 1891.
- The term atlas, as a collection of maps, was not used for this volume. It was first applied to the Mercator atlas of 1594.
- van 't Hoff (1961), p.19
- Monmonier Figure 4.2, page 51
- A digital copy of this map may be viewed online at Maritiem Digitaal http://www.maritiemdigitaal.nl/index.cfm?event=search.getsimplesearch&saveToHistory=1&database=ChoiceMardig&searchterm=mercator+1569&needImages=YES
- van 't Hoff (1961),
- "Text and translations of the legends of the original chart of the world by Gerhard Mercator issued in 1569.". Hydrographics Review 9/2: 7–45. 1932.
- Sjoerd de Meer, Rotterdam Facsimile of Mercator map.
- The Ortelius map was published in 1570 but it was known to Mercator from about 1556
- Some of the projections used in the period before 1569 are shown in the gallery. They are discussed in Snyder (Flattening the Earth Chapter 1 ) and also in his article in the History of Cartography.
- Monmonier, Chapter 5 and notes at page 191.
- The curved rhumb lines on the terrestrial globe of 1541 are clearly visible. Images of the copy of the Globe in the British Maritime Museum may be found in Globes at Greenwich by Elly Dekker.
- Hollander, Raymond d'. (2005) Loxodromie et projection de Mercator. Published by the Institut OceÌanographique (Paris). ISBN:9782903581312.
- Nordenskiöld Facsimile Atlas, p.96. Nordenskiöld claims that after allowing for possible shrinkage Mercator's latitude spacings are 1—2% greater than the calculated values.
- Le Neptune François ou receuil des cartes marines. Levées et gravépar ordre exprés du roy. Pour l'usage de ses armées de mer. A Paris, chez Hubert Jaillot originally by Alexis-Hubert Jaillot, 1632-1712. Pirated by the Mortier brothers in Amsterdam
- Osborne, Peter (2013), The Mercator Projections, doi:10.5281/zenodo.35392. (Chapter 2) https://dx.doi.org/10.5281%2Fzenodo.35392
- van 't Hoff
- van Nouhuys, p.239
- van 't Hoff Appendices F, G.
- Nordenskiöld Facsimile Atlas
- Penrose, B. 1932. Travel and discovery in the Renaissance, 1420–1620. Cambridge, mass.
- Blaeu (1606)
- Alves Gaspar, Joaquim (July 2016). "Revisiting Mercator's world map of 1569: an assessment of navigational accuracy". Antwerp. https://www.academia.edu/15798235.
- Robles Macías, Luis A. (2014). "The longitude of the Mediterranean throughout history: facts, myths and surprises". E-Perimetron 9 (1): 1–29. http://www.e-perimetron.org/Vol_9_1/Robles.pdf.
- Zuber, Mike A. (2011). "The Armchair Discovery of the Unknown Southern Continent: Gerardus Mercator, Philosophical Pretensions and a Competitive Trade". Early Science and Medicine 16 (6): 505–541. doi:10.1163/157338211x607772. https://www.academia.edu/1910165.
- Walter Ghim, "Vita…Gerardi Mercatoris Rupelmundani", Gerardi Mercatoris Atlas sive Cosmographice Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricate Figura, Amsterdami, 1606, p.12.
- The Gutierez map of 1562 is available on several web sites: Decorative maps; The Library of Congress http://www.decorative-maps.com/map-analysis-gutierrez-americae.html
- van 't Hoff p.40 The latin text and an English translation may be found in Osley.
- The Latin word ‘’minime’’ has been rendered "but very little" though it might just as well be translated "not at all". Indeed, it is possible that Mercator alludes to the fact that, already, attempts had been made to eliminate the difficulty of plane charts with parallels drawn at equal intervals. A work issued at the beginning of the 16th century, La Summa de Geographia by Enciso, states that upon a good chart the spacing of the parallels is not constant, it should increase with the latitude". (See: Gerhard Mercator, by H. Averdunk and Dr. J. Muller-Reinhard, p.129).
- The city of Regensburg in Bavaria.
- Nicholas of Lynn. His work, Inventio Fortunatae, now lost, still existed in 1569.
- One ship only, the Vittoria, completed the voyage.
- Mercator never accomplished his intention to publish a more detailed account of the use of the Organum Directio.
- See Treaty of Tordesillas and Treaty of Zaragoza
- Mercator takes this to be the Isle of Sumatra, on the equator 135E. The position of Taprobana was highly contentious in the sixteenth century. See [1]
- The famous periplus of Arrian describes the Black Sea. Ptolemy here may be referring to the Anabasis Alexandri. This requires clarification.
- Mercator seems to be contradicting himself at this point. Earlier in this Legend he accepts Ptolemy’s identification of the Golden Chersones as the Malaya Peninsula but finally identifies it with Japan.
- "Venezuela with the Southern Part of New Andalusia". 1612–1699. http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11337. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
