Synopses & Reviews
“Cranes book is quite probably destined to become the standard text.”Simon Winchester, The New York TimesGerhard Mercator lived in an era of formidable intellectual and scientific advances. At the center of the exploratory vortex were the cartographers who were painstakingly piecing together the evidence to create ever more accurate pictures of the planet. Mercator was the greatest of all of them. His inspirationthe mapsolved the dimensional riddle that had vexed cosmographers for so long: How could the three-dimensional globe be converted into a two-dimensional map while retaining true compass bearings? His resulting projection revolutionized navigation and has become the most common worldview. For the first time, people were able to see the world on paper and their place in it.
Nicholas Crane, a geographer himself, has combined a keen eye for historical detail with a gift for vivid storytelling to produce this masterly and highly acclaimed biography of the man who mapped the planet.
Nicholas Crane, a geographer and adventurer, is the author of Two Degrees West and Clear Waters Rising. He lives in London.
Born into the age of Discovery, Gerard Mercator lived through an extraordinary era of intellectual and scientific expansion. Among those fueling this progress were the cartographers, who painstakingly sifted through the constant flow of new information and evidence to create ever more accurate pictures of the planet. Mercator was the greatest of them alla poor boy from the Low Countries who attended one of Europe's top universities, was persecuted and imprisoned by the Inquisition, but survived to coin the term "atlas" and to produce the so-called projection for which he is known. Devoutly religious, yet gripped by Aristotelian science, Mercator struggled to reconcile the two, a conflict mirrored by the growing clash in Europe between humanism and the Church.
Before 1568, navigation charts used by sailors did not correctly account for the fact that the world was round. Mercator solved the dimensional riddle that had vexed cosmographers for so long: How could the three-dimensional globe be converted into a two-dimensional map while retaining true compass bearings? The projection revolutionized navigation and has become the most common worldview. Even today, NASA uses Mercator's projections to map Mars. Mercator's equations allowed cartographers to produce charts from which they could easily navigate, regardless of the size distortion the map produced. On a broader scale, the map brought about a paradigm shift in our conception of the world. For the first time, people were able to see the world on a single sheet of paper and to see their place within it.
Nicholas Crane, a geographer himself, has combined a keen eye for historical detail with a gift for vivid storytelling to produce a masterly biographythe first ever in Englishof the man who mapped the planet.
"[Crane's] book is quite probably destined to become a standard text."Simon Winchester, The New York Times
"Nicholas Crane brings the great cartographer to life in an engaging biography carefully constructed by integrating Mercator's known accomplishments, with key social, military, political and meteorological events of sixteenth-century Europe."The Washington Post
"This rich and rewarding biography of the man who changed the way we look at the world . . . stands at the peak of Crane's achievements so far."The Times (London)
"As a portrait of a genius, as a biography, as a history, as a rich, lively though dignified narrative and as a colorful adventure, this story of the stoic individual who not only mapped the planet but opened man's eyes, is a marvellous, unforgettable book. It is also one that everyone with an interest in history, the world, in life, shouldno, mustread."The Irish Times
"It is difficult now for us to be surprised by maps, so many are there, and of such detail and coverage. We are inured to the perspective from above, and in particular, the outline of continents and countries is imprinted on our brains. Crane's greatest success in this fine biography is to remind us if a time when such knowledge was far from a commonplace."The Guardian (London)
"A gracefully written, highly readable, and painstakingly researched volume."Financial Times
"Famous cartographer Gerard Mercator was a fellow graduate of Erasmus' alma mater and absorbed the Renaissance humanist spirit of the 1500s. In his 86 years, Mercator saw the opening wars of the Reformation, courtesy of Charles V's and his son Phillip II's campaigns to restore Catholic power in the Spanish Netherlands. These two themes of Mercator's era, the rejuvenation of inquiry and religio-political war, frame Crane's quite detailed biography, the first in English about the geographer. One of its most surprising aspects is the cradle-to-grave abundance of information about Mercator that Crane has pulled together, which is especially surprising since lowly cobblers' sonsas Mercator wasusually leave no historical records. But relatives and teachers took to Mercator, and their confidence in the boy was eventually vindicated by his seminal cartographic achievements. Illustrations of themhis mentors and his mapsabound in this stolid volume of Mercator's techniques and turbulent times."Gilbert Taylor, Booklist
"In the course of a life that nearly spanned the 16th century, that glorious age of exploration, a Flemish peasant's son, Gerard Mercator, helped shape the modern perception of the planet while seldom venturing beyond the confines of a corner of northwestern Europe. Crane, a British geographer and adventurer, makes much of Mercator's long life and uses this longevity as an organizing theme of the biography: 'surviving for twice as long as many of his contemporaries, he was able to mature through two consecutive life spans.' In the first half of his life, the comparatively impetuous Mercator, struggling with his ideals, was imprisoned under the inquisition. In the second, with his passions more focused, he conceived and drew the first modern map using a 'projection' that solved certain navigational problems; eventually, he created the first unified compilation of maps of the world, called an atlas. The raw material here is rich: there's the story of a poor boy making good, explorations into civil and martial turmoil, and the excitement of new discoveries . . . [Crane shows] a real talent for incorporating letters and documents from diverse sources into very readable prose, as well as teasing Mercator's personality out of sometimes scant or tangential sources."Publishers Weekly
Review
“Nicholas Crane brings the great cartographer to life in an engaging biography carefully constructed by integrating Mercators known accomplishments with key social, military, politcial and meteorological events of 16th-century Europe.”
The Washington Post “A gracefully written, highly readable and painstakingly researched volume.” Financial Times
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Review
“Nicholas Crane brings the great cartographer to life in an engaging biography carefully constructed by integrating Mercators known accomplishments with key social, military, politcial and meteorological events of 16th-century Europe.” —
The Washington Post “A gracefully written, highly readable and painstakingly researched volume.” —Financial Times
Synopsis
“Cranes book is quite probably destined to become the standard text.”—Simon Winchester, The New York TimesGerhard Mercator lived in an era of formidable intellectual and scientific advances. At the center of the exploratory vortex were the cartographers who were painstakingly piecing together the evidence to create ever more accurate pictures of the planet. Mercator was the greatest of all of them. His inspiration—the map—solved the dimensional riddle that had vexed cosmographers for so long: How could the three-dimensional globe be converted into a two-dimensional map while retaining true compass bearings? His resulting projection revolutionized navigation and has become the most common worldview. For the first time, people were able to see the world on paper and their place in it.
Nicholas Crane, a geographer himself, has combined a keen eye for historical detail with a gift for vivid storytelling to produce this masterly and highly acclaimed biography of the man who mapped the planet.
About the Author
Nicholas Crane, a geographer and adventurer, is the author of two acclaimed books,
Two Degrees West and
Clear Waters Rising. He lives in London.