Rumold Mercator (
Leuven
Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...
, 1541 –
Duisburg
Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...
, 31 December 1599) was a
cartographer
Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...
, son of
Gerardus Mercator
Gerardus Mercator (; 5 March 1512 – 2 December 1594) was a Flemish people, Flemish geographer, cosmographer and Cartography, cartographer. He is most renowned for creating the Mercator 1569 world map, 1569 world map based on a new Mercator pr ...
and brother of
Arnold Mercator, both also cartographers.
He completed some at the time
unfinished projects left after his father's death and added new materials of his own research.
Biography
Rumold Mercator was the youngest son of cartographer Gerardus Mercator and his first wife Barbara Schellekens. He rose to fame in his father's wake when, in 1587, he published a copy of his father's
Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to:
Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty
*Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter
*Ptolemaic Kingdom
Pertaining t ...
map of the world from 1569, revised in its overall graphic design.
In 1595, a year after his father's death, Rumold Mercator published a supplement of 34 maps to his father's ''Tabulae Geographicae'' map book.
It contains 29 maps, engraved by Gerardus Mercator, of the missing parts of Europe (Iceland, the British Isles and the Northern and Eastern European countries).
To complete the map collection quickly, Rumold added his own world map from 1587 and had four maps of the continents from his father's large world map from 1569 copied by his nephews Gerardus Mercator junior and Michael Mercator, sons of
Arnold Mercator. The title page was also an emergency solution: it is the title of the Ptolemy edition of 1578, on which the new title was pasted in letterpress.
Rumold Mercator also released a 'complete edition' with all 107 maps. In fact, this edition is no more than a single-bound reissue of the four series ''Tabulae Geographicae'' with the new addition.
References
1541 births
1599 deaths
16th-century Flemish cartographers
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