Lowlands Sixteenth Century Cartography: Mercator's Birth Pentecentennial

The 500th anniversary of Mercator's birth ought to be celebrated as a milestone in the history of cartography and navigation. Not because he is one of the mapmakers of the 16th century, but because he contributed perhaps most significantly to the progress of navigation. Although he was born in a small Flandrian town, his name remains associated with Antwerp. His studies at the famed university of Louvain (Leuven-Lovanium) were financed by a clerical relative, and his work was buttressed by that of Ortelius, his associate. The Mercator projection proved to be a priceless gift to ship captains. Earlier in the same century a painter of renown, Peter Pourbus, in the service of the Sire of Moerbeke and of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, engaged in mapmaking using an approach worthy of modern cartographers. In the northern Lowlands, mapmaking had already made great steps forward in earlier times.