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All items are guaranteed authentic prints (woodcuts or engravings) or manuscripts made at or about (c.) the given date and in good condition unless stated otherwise. We don’t sell facsimiles or reproductions. We deliver every map with a Certificate of Authenticity containing all the details.

Antique map of Ancient World by Mercator G. - Ptolemy Cl. 1578

Gerard Mercator (1512 – 1594)

Gerard Mercator was born Gerard de Cremere in Rupelmonde (near Antwerp) on 5 March 1512.

Young Gerard learned what Latin he could in Rupelmonde, and when he was about fifteen, his uncle sent him to s'Hertogenbosch to study at a school run by the Brothers of the Common Life. One of Mercator’s teachers was the celebrated humanist Macropedius. After three and a half years with the brothers, Gerard went to Louvain, where he enrolled in the university in 1530 as one of the poor students at Castle College.

By this time, he had Latinized his name to Mercator. He studied philosophy and took his master’s degree in 1532. The problems of the creation of the Universe and the Earth interested him in particular, and this is reflected in his works written in later years.

After spending a few years in Antwerp, he returned to Louvain in c. 1535, where he took courses in mathematics under Gemma Frisius. Soon, he was recognised as an expert on the construction of mathematical instruments, as a land surveyor and, after 1537, as a cartographer. He drew his income from these activities after his marriage on August 3, 1536. He also qualified himself as a copper engraver, the first to introduce italic handwriting to this trade. The first maps, drawn and engraved by Gerard Mercator, are Palestine, 1537; the World in double heart-shaped projection, 1538; and Flanders, 1540.

In 1544, Mercator came into great danger: he was arrested on the accusation of heresy and put into jail. Thanks to the intervention of the University of Louvain, he was released after four months. In 1552, he moved with his family to Duisburg (Germany). In 1560, Mercator became a cosmographer in service of the Duke of Jülich-Cleve-Berge, and in 1563, he became a lecturer at the Grammar School of the new University in Duisburg. During this period, he made wall maps of Europe, 1554; of Loraine, 1564; the British Isles, 1564; and the famous world map with increasing latitudes, 1569. About this time, Mercator was also working on the project for a complete description of the creation, the Heavens, Earth, Sea and world history. This resulted in his Atlas, sive cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabricati figura. He also worked on an edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia in 1578. The first part of his book, which contains modern maps (France, Germany, and the Netherlands), appeared in 1585.

Shortly after the publication of the second part of his map book (not yet called Atlas) with the maps of Italy (1589), he had a stroke that ended his highly significant productivity. The great man passed away on 2 December 1594, leaving the responsibility of finishing the map book to his son Rumold. The final part of it appeared in 1595. Its title is Pars Altera, and it constitutes an essential part of what was then called Mercator’s Atlas.

The map of Europe and the world map in the Atlas are by Rumold Mercator. After Rumold died in 1599, the Atlas was reissued in 1602.

The plates of the maps, both of the Ptolemy edition and the Atlas, were sold in 1604 to Jodocus Hondius of Amsterdam. The following year, Hondius managed to bring out Ptolemy’s Geographia. In 1606, the first Amsterdam edition of the Mercator Atlas appeared in the next year. From then to 1638, the Atlas saw many enlarged editions in various languages.

Claudius Ptolemy   (c.100 – c.170 AD)

Claudius Ptolemy was a Greek-speaking scholar who lived in Alexandria during the second century CE, under Roman rule. Active around 100–170 CE, Ptolemy is regarded as one of the most influential astronomers, geographers, and mathematicians of the ancient world. His writings shaped scientific thought for more than a thousand years and formed a cornerstone of both Islamic and European scholarship during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Ptolemy is best known for two monumental works: the Almagest, which presented the geocentric model of the universe, and the Geographia, a systematic study of world geography. In the Geographia, he compiled coordinates for thousands of places and introduced methods for projecting the curved surface of the earth onto a flat map. Although many of his measurements were inaccurate by modern standards, his use of latitude and longitude established a scientific framework that profoundly influenced the history of cartography.

Ptolemy’s works survived through Byzantine and Islamic scholars before being rediscovered in Renaissance Europe, where they inspired a renewed interest in mathematics, astronomy, and mapmaking. Printed editions of the Geographia, including the famous Ulm editions of 1482 and 1486, brought his ideas to a wider audience and became foundational texts in the development of early modern geography.

Today, Ptolemy is remembered not only for the accuracy of his observations but also for his ambition to organise and describe the known world through mathematics and reason. His legacy marks a crucial bridge between the scientific traditions of antiquity and the intellectual revival of the Renaissance.

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Universalis Tabula iuxta Ptolemaeum

SOLD

Item Number:  20819 Authenticity Guarantee

Category:  Antique maps > World

Copper engraving
Size: 34 x 48cm (14 x 19 inches)
Verso text: Latin
Condition: Excellent.
References: Shirley, 139; Van der Krogt 1, 0900:1.1.

From: Tabulae Geographicae Cl. Ptolemaei ad mentem autoris restitutae et emendatae Per Gerardum Mercatorem. Cologne, 1578.

Gerard Mercator (1512 – 1594)

Gerard Mercator was born Gerard de Cremere in Rupelmonde (near Antwerp) on 5 March 1512.

Young Gerard learned what Latin he could in Rupelmonde, and when he was about fifteen, his uncle sent him to s'Hertogenbosch to study at a school run by the Brothers of the Common Life. One of Mercator’s teachers was the celebrated humanist Macropedius. After three and a half years with the brothers, Gerard went to Louvain, where he enrolled in the university in 1530 as one of the poor students at Castle College.

By this time, he had Latinized his name to Mercator. He studied philosophy and took his master’s degree in 1532. The problems of the creation of the Universe and the Earth interested him in particular, and this is reflected in his works written in later years.

After spending a few years in Antwerp, he returned to Louvain in c. 1535, where he took courses in mathematics under Gemma Frisius. Soon, he was recognised as an expert on the construction of mathematical instruments, as a land surveyor and, after 1537, as a cartographer. He drew his income from these activities after his marriage on August 3, 1536. He also qualified himself as a copper engraver, the first to introduce italic handwriting to this trade. The first maps, drawn and engraved by Gerard Mercator, are Palestine, 1537; the World in double heart-shaped projection, 1538; and Flanders, 1540.

In 1544, Mercator came into great danger: he was arrested on the accusation of heresy and put into jail. Thanks to the intervention of the University of Louvain, he was released after four months. In 1552, he moved with his family to Duisburg (Germany). In 1560, Mercator became a cosmographer in service of the Duke of Jülich-Cleve-Berge, and in 1563, he became a lecturer at the Grammar School of the new University in Duisburg. During this period, he made wall maps of Europe, 1554; of Loraine, 1564; the British Isles, 1564; and the famous world map with increasing latitudes, 1569. About this time, Mercator was also working on the project for a complete description of the creation, the Heavens, Earth, Sea and world history. This resulted in his Atlas, sive cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabricati figura. He also worked on an edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia in 1578. The first part of his book, which contains modern maps (France, Germany, and the Netherlands), appeared in 1585.

Shortly after the publication of the second part of his map book (not yet called Atlas) with the maps of Italy (1589), he had a stroke that ended his highly significant productivity. The great man passed away on 2 December 1594, leaving the responsibility of finishing the map book to his son Rumold. The final part of it appeared in 1595. Its title is Pars Altera, and it constitutes an essential part of what was then called Mercator’s Atlas.

The map of Europe and the world map in the Atlas are by Rumold Mercator. After Rumold died in 1599, the Atlas was reissued in 1602.

The plates of the maps, both of the Ptolemy edition and the Atlas, were sold in 1604 to Jodocus Hondius of Amsterdam. The following year, Hondius managed to bring out Ptolemy’s Geographia. In 1606, the first Amsterdam edition of the Mercator Atlas appeared in the next year. From then to 1638, the Atlas saw many enlarged editions in various languages.

Claudius Ptolemy   (c.100 – c.170 AD)

Claudius Ptolemy was a Greek-speaking scholar who lived in Alexandria during the second century CE, under Roman rule. Active around 100–170 CE, Ptolemy is regarded as one of the most influential astronomers, geographers, and mathematicians of the ancient world. His writings shaped scientific thought for more than a thousand years and formed a cornerstone of both Islamic and European scholarship during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Ptolemy is best known for two monumental works: the Almagest, which presented the geocentric model of the universe, and the Geographia, a systematic study of world geography. In the Geographia, he compiled coordinates for thousands of places and introduced methods for projecting the curved surface of the earth onto a flat map. Although many of his measurements were inaccurate by modern standards, his use of latitude and longitude established a scientific framework that profoundly influenced the history of cartography.

Ptolemy’s works survived through Byzantine and Islamic scholars before being rediscovered in Renaissance Europe, where they inspired a renewed interest in mathematics, astronomy, and mapmaking. Printed editions of the Geographia, including the famous Ulm editions of 1482 and 1486, brought his ideas to a wider audience and became foundational texts in the development of early modern geography.

Today, Ptolemy is remembered not only for the accuracy of his observations but also for his ambition to organise and describe the known world through mathematics and reason. His legacy marks a crucial bridge between the scientific traditions of antiquity and the intellectual revival of the Renaissance.

References: Van der Krogt 1 - 0900:1.1
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