The makers
Cartographers
6 mapmakers whose work runs through the essays — with the maps each of them left in the collection.
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César-François Cassini de Thury
AD 1714 – AD 1784
Paris
French astronomer and cartographer (Cassini III) who directed the triangulation-based Carte de Cassini, the first topographic map of an entire nation grounded in systematic geodetic survey.
1 map in the collection
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Johannes Honterus
AD 1498 – AD 1549
Kronstadt (Brașov)
Transylvanian Saxon humanist, cosmographer and reformer who mapped his own Carpathian homeland and produced widely reprinted cosmographic works.
1 map in the collection
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Muhammad al-Idrisi
AD 1100 – AD 1165
Ceuta · Palermo
Arab geographer at the Norman court of Roger II of Sicily, where he compiled the Tabula Rogeriana (1154) — one of the most advanced world maps of the medieval period, drawn south-up.
1 map in the collection
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Gerardus Mercator
AD 1512 – AD 1594
Rupelmonde · Leuven · Duisburg
Flemish cartographer, engraver and instrument-maker whose 1569 projection made rhumb lines straight for navigators — at the cost of grossly inflating the high latitudes. He coined the term "atlas" for a bound collection of maps.
1 map in the collection
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Abraham Ortelius
AD 1527 – AD 1598
Antwerp
Brabantian cartographer and geographer whose Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570) is regarded as the first modern atlas: a uniform, bound set of map sheets with a credited list of sources.
1 map in the collection
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Martin Waldseemüller
AD 1470 – AD 1520
Saint-Dié-des-Vosges
German cartographer whose 1507 world map was the first to apply the name "America" to the New World, honouring Amerigo Vespucci.
1 map in the collection