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Gerhard Mercator (1512–1594)
Mercator (Latinized from his real name, Kremer), Gerhard (mėr-kā’tor). A celebrated Flemish geographer; born at Rupelmonde, Belgium, March 5, 1512; died at Duisburg, Prussia, Dec. 2, 1594. He invented the “Mercator system” of projection of the earth’s surface, made familiar in our atlases. His chief works were ‘Geographical Maps according to Ptolemy’ (1578–84); and ‘Atlas’ (1595), which made an epoch in cartography.