Gerard Mercator was a cartographer, geographer and a globe and instrument maker. 

Trained under Gemma Frisius at the University of Leuven, Mercator won the patronage of 

, Charles V. His greatest contribution to the discipline of cartography was the Mercator projection. 

Mercator was arrested in 1544 on a charge of heresy and imprisoned for several months in Rupelmonde Castle. To escape religious persecution, he moved to Duisburg in 1552, where he continued to produce globes, instruments, and the famed 

First used in his 1569 world map, his eponymous projection was one way of solving the age-old question of how to map the spherical earth onto a two-dimensional surface. In 1585, Mercator began formulating a three-volume collection of maps. He coined the term ‘atlas’ to describe the book's function, derived from the Titan King of Mauritania, Atlas, who was a philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. He is depicted holding a celestial sphere on the frontis piece of Mercator’s famous ‘Atlas’ (1595) which is considered the first scientific atlas.

After his death in 1594, Mercator's son, Rumold took over the business and completed his father’s Atlas (1595) before his own death in 1599. The copperplates from Mercator’s estate would be sold to Jodocus Hondius in 1604, who would go on to produce fourteen editions of what is known as the ‘Mercator-Hondius’ Atlas.

Colourful engraved portrait of Gerard Mercator - an older white man wearing black robes, a large white ruff collar and a black Dutch hat. He is holding a set of compasses on top of a terrestrial globe which he steadies with his left hand.