Mercator Map Projection

Timeline

1. 1569Duisburg · RhinelandMercator published Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigantium Emendate Accommodata in Duisburg, displaying the globe with a conformal cylindrical projection, latitude spacing increasing in proportion to sec φ, solving the cartographic problem of maintaining course at sea and marking a milestone of modern sea-chart projection.
2. c. 1571–1580Antwerp · BrabantIn the 1570s cartographers and publishers in port cities such as Antwerp and Amsterdam reprinted Mercator charts in large numbers; Dutch and Spanish navigators used them for transoceanic trade and colonial route planning, and the projection spread rapidly along the North Sea and Mediterranean coasts through printed works.
3. c. 1578–1595Duisburg · RhinelandMercator continued compiling Atlas sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura in his later years; his son and pupils published the complete edition posthumously in 1595, making the Mercator projection the atlas standard and dominating sea charts and teaching maps for centuries thereafter.