MERCATOR, GERARD

(1512-1594)

Flemish mathematician and mapmaker, based inLouvain. His large engraved map of Europe in 1554 was his outstanding work, but he is most important because he devised the method of projecting maps of a spherical Earth onto a flat surface by making the parallels and meridians intersect at 90 degrees. This Mercator's Projection was simple and reasonably accurate for the parts of the globe usually mapped by Europeans of his time, but it causes increasing distortion of regions the nearer they lie to the south and north poles.