GEOGRAPHER

Gerardus Mercator

1512 - 1594

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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 notable maker of globes and scientific instruments. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Gerardus Mercator has received more than 1,002,489 page views. His biography is available in 67 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 66 in 2019). Gerardus Mercator is the 4th most popular geographer, the 9th most popular biography from Belgium (up from 10th in 2019) and the most popular Belgian Geographer.

Gerardus Mercator is most famous for the Mercator Projection, which is a map projection that shows the earth as a sphere.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.0M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 77.17

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 67

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 14.29

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.71

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among GEOGRAPHERS

Among geographers, Gerardus Mercator ranks 4 out of 86. Before him are Eratosthenes, Strabo, and Alexander von Humboldt. After him are Muhammad al-Idrisi, Piri Reis, Pausanias, Carl Ritter, Abraham Ortelius, Ferdinand von Richthofen, Martin Waldseemüller, and Wladimir Köppen.

Most Popular Geographers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1512, Gerardus Mercator ranks 1. After him are Catherine Parr, James V of Scotland, Niccolò dell'Abbate, Henry, King of Portugal, Judah Loew ben Bezalel, Manco Inca Yupanqui, Devlet I Giray, Robert Recorde, Mikołaj "the Red" Radziwiłł, Diego Laynez, and Sibylle of Cleves. Among people deceased in 1594, Gerardus Mercator ranks 1. After him are Tintoretto, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Orlande de Lassus, Ishikawa Goemon, Archduchess Eleanor of Austria, Martin Frobisher, Bálint Balassi, Alonso de Ercilla, Thomas Kyd, Girolamo Mei, and William Allen.

Others Born in 1512

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Others Deceased in 1594

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In Belgium

Among people born in Belgium, Gerardus Mercator ranks 9 out of 1,190. Before him are Clovis I (466), Charles Martel (688), Audrey Hepburn (1929), Jan van Eyck (1395), René Magritte (1898), and Leopold II of Belgium (1835). After him are Maurice Maeterlinck (1862), Andreas Vesalius (1514), Anthony van Dyck (1599), Leopold III of Belgium (1901), Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908), and Ursula von der Leyen (1958).

Others born in Belgium

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Among GEOGRAPHERS In Belgium

Among geographers born in Belgium, Gerardus Mercator ranks 1. After him are Abraham Ortelius (1527), and Jodocus Hondius (1563).

Belgian born Geographers

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