Nicholas Mercator (1640-1686/7).
[221]Mr. Nicholas Mercator[Y]: his father was ... ... Philip Melancthon was his great-grandmother's brother.
He is of little stature, perfect; black haire, of a delicate moyst curle; darke[222] eie, but of great vivacity of spirit. He is of a soft temper, of great temperance (amat Venerem aliquantum): of a prodigious invention, and will be acquainted (familiarly) with nobody. His true German name is Nicolas Kauffman, i.e. chapman, i.e. Mercator.
The first booke he printed was his Cosmographia, at ..., where he uses his German name, 'qua sternitur fundamentum Trigonometriae sphericorum, Logarithmicae, Astronomiae sphaericae, Geographiae, Histiodromiae gnomonicae; a Nicola Kauffman, Holsato-Dantisc., Anno MDCLI.'
Nicolai Mercatoris in Geometriam introductio brevis quâ magnitudinum ortus ex genuinis principiis et ortarum affectiones ex ipsa genesi derivantur, printed at London 1678, before a little booke of Euclid's Elements demonstrated after a new method.
Astronomia[Z], printed at London, 167-.
Logarithmotechnia; the first part printed with ... of Slusius, anno Domini, 166-: the second part of it, being 8 sheets 4to, lyes in the hands of Mr. Moyses Pitts and is a most admirable piece.
Astrologia: unprinted: in 4to, altogether after a new manner and on other principles.