noun
- Ger·har·dus [jer-hahr-duh s] /dʒərˈhɑr dəs/, Gerhard Kremer, 1512–94, Flemish cartographer and geographer.
adjective
- noting, pertaining to, or according to the principles of a Mercator projection: a Mercator chart.
noun
- Gerardus (dʒəˈrɑːdəs). Latinized name of Gerhard Kremer. 1512–94, Flemish cartographer and mathematician
type of map projection, 1660s, invented by Flemish geographer Gerhard Kremer (1512-1594), who Latinized his surname, which means “dealer, tradesman,” as Mercator (see merchant). He first used this type of map projection in 1568.
- Flemish cartographer who in 1568 developed the Mercator projection. In 1585 he began work on a book of maps of Europe, a project that was later completed by his son and published in 1595. As a result of the drawing of the Greek titan Atlas carrying the globe on his shoulders on the book’s cover, the term atlas was subsequently applied to any book of maps.