Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594), Flemish cartographer. Mercator was born Gerard de Cremere and was educated at the University of Louvain. During his lifetime he was most famous for making mathematical instruments. He produced his first map (of Palestine) in 1537, then a map of the world in 1538. He was arrested for heresy in 1544 on the basis of his protestant sympathies, but was released after seven months. In 1552 he moved to Duisberg and set up a cartography business. It was here he created the Mercator projection, a cylindrical projection useful for navigation as lines of constant bearing are straight lines. He pioneered the production of papier mache globes on which paper maps were pasted from tapering gores, and coined the term atlas to mean a collection of maps. This woodcut is from van Opmeer's Opus chronographicum orbis universi, published at Antwerp in 1611.