Mercator Atlas 1595 - OLD MAPS - Leather GORGEOUS!!! Start Price USD 779.00 Current Price USD 779.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Saturday, June 28, 2008 End Time Tuesday, July 08, 2008 Location Hamburg See more about 'Mercator Atlas 1595 - OLD MAPS - Leather GORGEOUS!!!' Description Mercator Atlas 1595Atlas sive cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mvndi et fabricati figvra.  It contains 57 double page maps.   This is a reprint published by the Coron Verlag Lachen.  Complete coined leather cover from finest cattle leather. Folio in the format 17.8" x 12.2" x 2.3" inch Weight is 11 lbs  About the Mercator Atlas: To the modern eye the maps are powerful magic, casting us back to a place in time when the outlines of the world as we know it were first emerging from darkness. Gerardus Mercator was a 16th-century Flemish cartographer and if you check the dictionary or desk top encyclopedia closest to hand, it'll probably mention him as well as the years he lived (1512-1594). If there is such an entry in your dictionary, however, it will spend more time explaining the Mercator projection which is the system of map projection that Mercator developed and which -- in severely refined form -- is not archaic today. Passion, brilliance, perseverance and his projection system are what enabled Mercator to create maps more accurate than any that had gone before. It is also thought that he was the first cartographer to bind his creations together in a cohesive way. So that you could see -- under one binding -- how map "a" fit to map "b". It is thought that he created the first known Atlas. The world, as seen by Mercator, was a much more understandable place. Please take a look to my other books! This Atlas is in mint condition!!   Place a Bid!