Book Description
Publisher Description
Author : Nicholas Crane
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 377 pages
File Size : 45,27 MB
Release : 2003-01-02
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0805066241
Publisher Description
Author : Nicholas Crane
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
Page : 500 pages
File Size : 13,9 MB
Release : 2014-09-02
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1466880139
An enthralling biography of the man who created the first real map of the world and changed civilization Born at the dawn of the age of discovery, Gerhard Mercator lived in an era of formidable intellectual and scientific advances. At the center of these developments were the cartographers who painstakingly pieced together the evidence to create ever more accurate pictures of the planet. Mercator was the greatest of all of them-a poor farm boy who attended one of Europe's top universities, was persecuted and imprisoned by the Inquisition, but survived to coin the term "atlas" and to produce the so-called projection for which he is known. Devoutly religious, yet gripped by Aristotelian science, Mercator struggled to reconcile the two, a conflict mirrored by the growing clash in Europe between humanism and the Church. Mercator solved the dimensional riddle that had vexed cosmographers for so long: How could the three-dimensional globe be converted into a two-dimensional map while retaining true compass bearings? The projection revolutionized navigation and has become the most common worldview. Nicholas Crane-a fellow geographer-has combined a keen eye for historical detail with a gift for vivid storytelling to produce a masterful biography of the man who mapped the planet.
Author : Mark Monmonier
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 10,93 MB
Release : 2010-11-15
Category : Science
ISBN : 0226534324
In Rhumb Lines and Map Wars, Mark Monmonier offers an insightful, richly illustrated account of the controversies surrounding Flemish cartographer Gerard Mercator's legacy. He takes us back to 1569, when Mercator announced a clever method of portraying the earth on a flat surface, creating the first projection to take into account the earth's roundness. As Monmonier shows, mariners benefited most from Mercator's projection, which allowed for easy navigation of the high seas with rhumb lines—clear-cut routes with a constant compass bearing—for true direction. But the projection's popularity among nineteenth-century sailors led to its overuse—often in inappropriate, non-navigational ways—for wall maps, world atlases, and geopolitical propaganda. Because it distorts the proportionate size of countries, the Mercator map was criticized for inflating Europe and North America in a promotion of colonialism. In 1974, German historian Arno Peters proffered his own map, on which countries were ostensibly drawn in true proportion to one another. In the ensuing "map wars" of the 1970s and 1980s, these dueling projections vied for public support—with varying degrees of success. Widely acclaimed for his accessible, intelligent books on maps and mapping, Monmonier here examines the uses and limitations of one of cartography's most significant innovations. With informed skepticism, he offers insightful interpretations of why well-intentioned clerics and development advocates rallied around the Peters projection, which flagrantly distorted the shape of Third World nations; why journalists covering the controversy ignored alternative world maps and other key issues; and how a few postmodern writers defended the Peters worldview with a self-serving overstatement of the power of maps. Rhumb Lines and Map Wars is vintage Monmonier: historically rich, beautifully written, and fully engaged with the issues of our time.
Author : Thomas HASELDEN
Publisher :
Page : 52 pages
File Size : 11,98 MB
Release : 1722
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Author : Samuel Augustus Mitchell (Jr.)
Publisher :
Page : 584 pages
File Size : 37,17 MB
Release : 1838
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Author : John Riddle
Publisher :
Page : 18 pages
File Size : 41,89 MB
Release : 1850
Category : Nautical astronomy
ISBN :
Author : Samuel Augustus Mitchell
Publisher :
Page : 584 pages
File Size : 38,43 MB
Release : 1841
Category :
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Author : Samuel Augustus Mitchell
Publisher :
Page : 728 pages
File Size : 48,59 MB
Release : 1846
Category : Geography
ISBN :
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Publisher :
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 49,70 MB
Release : 1843
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Author : Patrick Murdoch
Publisher :
Page : 90 pages
File Size : 46,84 MB
Release : 1741
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