"The World of Gerard Mercator: The Mapmaker Who Revolutionized Geography"
by Andrew Taylor
Walker & Co., 291 pp., $26

For those who only know the name Mercator through the controversial map projection that bears his name, historian Andrew Taylor has done a great service. In "The World of Gerard Mercator," Taylor has taken the famous name and fleshed out the life behind it. In the process he tells the story not only of a complex and brilliant man but also of a troubled and exciting time. It was an era when explorers were expanding the known reaches of the globe, but also when religious intolerance led to widespread persecution of those with new ideas.

Born in Antwerp in 1512, Mercator lived at a critical time in the history of exploration and mapmaking. Columbus had reached the new world only 20 years earlier. Gutenberg's press, invented in the mid-1400s, was now widespread. Trade was spreading to India and the Far East and expeditions were adding details about North America, northern Russia, the southern coast of Asia and Scandinavia.

Mercator produced his first map, of the Holy Land, in 1537, followed a year later by his first world map. Incorporating a double-heart shape, with separate north and south hemispheres, the map was nice to look at but not useful for navigation. For the next thirty years he continued to create maps, as well as produce globes and surveying and astronomical equipment. He was also, in the words of Taylor, "the finest cartographic engraver of the age."

Despite these skills and the many maps and instruments he made, Mercator's fame rests with his world map of 1569. It did what no other map before it had done: It made it possible for sailors to draw a straight line on a map that would correspond to a straight line when traveling. Almost as revolutionary, it showed the continents in their correct shape with as little distortion as possible.

Not an immediate success, and oddly underappreciated by Mercator, the map and its projection of a round world on a flat surface eventually became the standard for navigation. It subsequently became the standard map for how most Westerners view the world.

Mercator's intent was not, as some have claimed, to promote a world view that emphasized colonial powers, because it distorts the size of land masses, particularly those in the northern hemisphere. Instead, he simply wanted to produce a map that would aid in navigation at a time when more and more people were traveling farther and farther.

By crafting a well-written and engaging account of Mercator, Taylor allows us to see the fascinating man behind the projection. He shows how the map and its maker were revolutionaries as well as products of their times, and should not be judged harshly by our modern world view.