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5 unusual facts about Gerardus Mercator


Danish units of measurement

Towards the end of the 17th century, Ole Rømer, Gerardus Mercator and other contemporaries of the great Dutch cartographer Thisus began following Claudius Ptolemy in connecting the mile to the great circle of the earth, and Roemer defined it as 12,000 alen.

Gerardus Mercator

Mercator was born Gerard de Kremer or de Cremer in the town of Rupelmonde in the County of Flanders (modern-day Belgium) to parents from Gangelt in the Duchy of Jülich, where he was raised.

Japanese language education in Russia

Russian interest in Japan dated back to the early 17th century, when Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator's descriptions of Japan were translated into Russian.

Mercator Ice Piedmont

The ice piedmont was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in December 1958, and was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Flemish mathematician and geographer Gerardus Mercator, the originator, in 1568, of the map projection which bears his name.

Planisphere

This usage continued into the Renaissance: for example Gerardus Mercator described his 1569 world map as a planisphere.



see also