North Pole Map by Mercator Poster

Mercator was born Gheert Cremer (or Gerard de Cremere) in the Flemish town of Rupelmonde. "Mercator" is the Latinised form of his name. It means "merchant". He was educated in 's-Hertogenbosch by the famous humanist Macropedius and at the University of Leuven. Despite his fame as a cartographer, Mercator's main source of income came through his craftmanship of mathematical instruments. He returned to Leuven and worked with Gemma Frisius and Gaspar Myrica. They worked together from 1535 to 1536 to construct a terrestrial globe, although the role of Mercator in the project was not primarily as a cartographer, but as a highly skilled engraver of brass plates. Mercator's own independant map-making only began when he produced a map of Palestine in 1537, and this was followed by another map of the world (1538) and a map of Flanders (1540). During this period he learned Italic script since it was the most suitable type of script for copper engraving of maps. He wrote the first instruction book of Italic script published in northern Europe.