SCOTIA.

Highly decorative copper engraved map of Scotland produced to accompany the 1632 edition of Mercator's "Atlas Minor". The present map was published in Amsterdam in 1632 and has Latin text on the verso.

Measures approx. 140 x 185 mm. Good condition, see photo. 

Attractive hand colour.

A guaranteed genuine antique map.

GERARDUS MERCATOR

Gerardus Mercator ( 5 March 1512 – 2 December 1594) was a  Flemish   geographer ,  cosmographer  and  cartographer . He is most renowned for creating the  1569 world map  based on a new  projection  which represented sailing courses of constant bearing ( rhumb lines ) as straight lines—an innovation that is still employed in nautical charts. Mercator was a highly influential pioneer in the  history of cartography. Along with  Gemma Frisius  and  Abraham Ortelius , he is generally considered one of the founders of the  Netherlandish school of cartography and geography . He is also widely considered the most notable figure of the school. Mercator's early maps were in large formats suitable for wall mounting but in thesecond half of his life, he produced over 100 new regional maps in a smaller format suitable for binding into his Atlas of 1595. This was the first appearance of the word Atlas in reference to a book of maps. However, Mercator used it as a neologism for a treatise (Cosmologia) on the creation, history and description of the universe, not simply a collection of maps. He chose the word as a commemoration of the Titan Atlas, King of Mauretania, whom he considered to be the first great geographer.

A large part of Mercator's income came from sales of terrestrial and celestial globes. For sixty years they were considered the finest in the world, and were sold in such numbers that there are many surviving examples. This was a substantial enterprise involving the manufacture of the spheres, printing the  gores , building substantial stands, packing and distributing them all over Europe. He was also renowned for his scientific instruments, particularly his  astrolabes  and  astronomical rings  used to study the  geometry  of  astronomy  and  astrology .