CRANE, NICHOLAS

Mercator the Man Who Mapped the Planet

London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002. First Edition. Hardcover. ISBN: 0297646656. Light wear to top edge of dust jacket ; A bright, solid book, dustjacket in Mylar, unclipped, map endpapers ; B&W and color plates; 9.29 X 6.46 X 1.42 inches; 348 pages; "Gerhard Mercator (1512-1594) was born at the dawn of the Age of Discovery, when the world was beginning to be discovered and carved up by navigators, geographers and cartographers. Mercator was the greatest and most ingenious cartographer of them all: it was he who coined the word 'atlas' and solved the riddle of converting the three-dimensional globe into a two-dimensional map while retaining true compass bearings. It is Mercator's Projection that NASA is using today to map Mars. How did Mercator reconcile his religious beliefs with a science that would make Christian maps obsolete? How did a man whose imagination roamed continents endure imprisonment by the Inquisition? Crane brings this great man vividly to life, underlying it with the maps themselves: maps that brought to a rapt public wonders as remarkable as today's cyber-world. Nick Crane's new book is a scintillating account of the climax of the map-makers' century (and of Mercator's life) - the miraculous compression of the planet which revolutionised navigation and has become the most common worldview we have.". Near Fine in Very Good+ dust jacket .

Ainsworth BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 17452

Catalogue: Exploration::Cartography

Keywords: 0297646656 Maps Cartography Mercator Exploration EXPLORATION CARTOGRAPHY