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| Frontispiece of the 1595 Atlas by Mercator |
Gerardus Mercator was a 16th-century German-Flemish geographer, cosmographer and cartographer. He is most renowned for creating his 1569 world map based on a new projection which we now refer to as the "Mercator Projection." He was one of the pioneers of cartography and in his time was also known as a maker of globes and scientific instruments.
His early maps were in large formats suitable for wall mounting. In the second half of his life, he produced over 100 new regional maps in a smaller format suitable for binding into a book.
He called that book of maps his
Atlas of 1595. This was the first appearance of the word "atlas" in reference to a book of maps. He chose "atlas" as a commemoration of the Greek mythological Titan named Atlas, "King of Mauretania", whom he considered to be the first great geographer. In Greek mythology, the Titans were the pre-Olympian gods.
Mercator published his
Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura. (Atlas or cosmographical meditations upon the creation of the universe, and the universe as created.) with this title that provides Mercator's definition of the word as a description of the creation and form of the whole universe, not simply as a collection of maps.
It was published posthumously one year after his death as this quite wide-ranging text. But in later editions, it was reduced to simply a
collection of Earth maps and that is the sense that the word was used from the middle of the 17th century through today.
Mercator may have appreciated the broader meaning used today for
the website and
print version that is called the Atlas Obscura - though he would have wanted them to go beyond Earth.
