Marcus Jordanus (* ca. 1531 in Krempe; † 1595 in Krempe) was a Danish cartographer and mathematician. Jordanus studied at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

, where in 1550 he was appointed Professor of Mathematics. Among other things, he gave lectures on

geodesy Geodesy or geodetics is the science of measuring and representing the Figure of the Earth, geometry, Gravity of Earth, gravity, and Earth's rotation, spatial orientation of the Earth in Relative change, temporally varying Three-dimensional spac ...

and dealt with the

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

. In 1552, he published a map with the printer Hans Vingaard in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. This was one of the first printed maps of the Duchies of

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig (; ; ; ; ; ) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km (45 mi) south of the current border between Germany and Denmark. The territory has been di ...

and

Holstein Holstein (; ; ; ; ) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider (river), Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost States of Germany, state of Germany. Holstein once existed as the German County of Holstein (; 8 ...

, and

Abraham Ortelius Abraham Ortelius (; also Ortels, Orthellius, Wortels; 4 or 14 April 152728 June 1598) was a cartographer, geographer, and cosmographer from Antwerp in the Spanish Netherlands. He is recognized as the creator of the list of atlases, first modern ...

referred to it in his '' Catalogus Cartographorum''. The map is now lost, and no copies survive.

Career

In 1553, Cristian III of Denmark and Norway commissioned Jordanus to visit and map all the provinces of the empire. The resulting map was handed over to the University Library in Copenhagen, but is no longer there. After this commission, the cartographer did not return to the University, but devoted his time to further mapping work. In 1559 he published another map of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. It also included a

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

of 1558 to 1585. There is a copy of this map in the library of the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...

. Jordanus later returned to his birthplace, where he was mayor in 1568 and 1582.

Bibliography

* Bjørnbo, A.A., C.S. Petersen: ''Anecdota cartografica septentrionlia''. Hauniae 1908, p. 8 * Cruse, P.: ''Die älteste Karte Schleswig-Holsteins aus dem Jahre 1559''. In: Schleswigholstein 11 (1959) * Witt, Reimer: ''Die Anfänge von Kartographie und Topologie Schleswig-Holsteins 1475–1652'', Heide 1982, {{Authority control Jordanus Jordanus