Introduction of the Mercator World Map Revolutionizes Nautical Navigation
Overview
In 1569, Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594) broke away from the teachings of Greek mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy (90-168) and published a world map, which introduced a new system of projection for marine charts featuring true bearings, or rhumblines, between any two points. His system presented a revolutionary cylindrical projection where a straight line between any two points forms the same angle with all the meridians, and became the basis for modern day navigational charts.
Background
The practice of cartography, or map-making, can be traced back to early examples from Babylon, Egypt, and China, where the first maps were printed. European map-making canbe traced to early Greek culture and the most significant contributions to the study of geography were made by Claudius Ptolemaeus known as Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer and mathematician. Ptolemy created an eight-volume cartographical work entitled Geographike Hhegesis or Guide to Geography , which featured his own research as well as that of his predecessors. These included Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276-c. 194 B.C.), who developed an accurate measure of the circumference of the globe; Crates of Mallus (fl. early second century B.C.), who formalized the concept of a globe; Hipparchus (fl.
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