German and English writers have disputed over the claim for the invention of what is known as Mercator’s projection. The facts seem to be that Mercator conceived the principle, but did not accurately work out the formula for parallelizing the meridians and for spreading the parallels of latitude. Mead, on The Construction of Maps (1717), charged Mercator with having stolen the idea from Edward Wright, who was the first to publish an engraved map on this system in his Certaine Errors of Navigation, London, 1599. It seems, however, clear that Wright perfected the formula, and only claimed to have improved, not to have invented, the projection. Raemdonck (p. 120) gives full references.
[731] Dr. J. van Raemdonck published Gérard Mercator, sa Vie et ses Œuvres, in 1869; a paper in the nature of a supplement by him, “Relations commerciales entre Gérard Mercator et Christophe Plautin à Anvers,” was published in the Bull. de la Soc. géog. d’Anvers, iv. 327. There is a succinct account of Mercator by Eliab F. Hall published in the Bulletin (1878, no. 4) of the American Geographical Society. Raemdonck (p. 312) has shown that the old belief in the Latinization of Koopman, or Kaufmann, as the original name of Mercator, is an error,—his family name having been Cremer, which in Flemish signified the German Kaufmann and the Latin Mercator. Raemdonck also shows that Mercator was born in the Pays de Waas, March 5, 1512.
[732] Leclerc, Bibl. Amer., no. 2,911 (45 francs).
[733] Cf. I. C. Iselin, in Historisch-Geographisches Lexicon, Basel, 1726, 2d part.
[734] Sabin, vol. xii. no. 47,882. Lelewel, Géog. du Moyen Age, despaired of setting right the order of the various editions of Hondius-Mercator; but Raemdonck, Mercator, p. 260, thinks he has determined their sequence; and upon Raemdonck we have in part depended in this account. Raemdonck mentions the copies in European libraries. The 1607 edition was translated into French by Popellinière, the author of Les trois Mondes; and other French editions were issued in 1613, 1619, 1628, 1630, 1633, 1635. Cf. Quetelet, Histoire des Sciences, mathématique et physique chez les Belges, p. 116.
[735] Known in his vernacular as Pierre van den Bergh. He had married the sister of Jodocus Hondius.
[736] This had 153 plates, but none touching New France, except the map of the world. The same, with German text, appeared in 1609. About twenty editions appeared in various languages; but that of 1627-1628 showed 140 newly engraved maps, of which there were later Dutch (1630) and Latin (1634) editions. In 1651, this Atlas minor was increased to two volumes, with 211 maps, having 71 (including five new maps of South American regions) additional maps to the 140 of the 1627-1628 edition. Cf. Raemdonck, Mercator; Carter-Brown Catalogue, vol. ii. no. 1,634; and Sabin, vol. xii. nos. 47,887 and 47,888.
[737] In 1633-39 it had the title, Atlas; ou, Représentation du Monde, in three volumes; Sabin, vol. xii. no. 47,884.
[738] The English editor was Wye Saltonstall. There are copies in Harvard College Library and in Mr. Deane’s, and the Carter-Brown Collection (Catalogue, ii. 430; cf. Sabin, Dictionary, vol. xii. no. 47,885). The second edition in some copies has Ralph Hall’s very rare map of Virginia.
[739] There is a fine copy in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society; cf. Sabin, vol. xii. no. 47,886.