Rumold Mercator

World map by Rumold Mercator from 1587

Rumold Mercator (* 1541 in Löwen ; † December 31, 1599 in Duisburg ), like his famous father Gerhard Mercator, was a cartographer by profession .

In the slipstream of his father, the son drew attention to himself when in 1587 he published a copy of his father's Ptolemaic map of the world from 1569, revised in its overall graphic design .

In 1595, one year after his father's death, Rumold Mercator published an addition to his father's book of maps, Tabulae Geographicae, with a further 34 maps. It contains 29 maps of the missing parts of Europe ( Iceland , the British Isles and the Northern and Eastern European countries) engraved by Gerhard Mercator .

In order to be able to complete the map collection quickly, Rumold added his own map of the world from 1587 and had four maps of the continents copied from his father's large map of the world from 1569 by his nephews Gerhard Mercator Junior and Michael Mercator (sons of Arnold Mercator ). The title page is also an emergency solution: it is the title of the Ptolemy edition from 1578, on which the new title is glued in letterpress.

Rumold Mercator also published a complete edition with all 107 maps. In fact, this edition is just a new edition of the four series Tabulae Geographicae, bound in one volume, with its own addition.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heinrich Averdunk: The descendants of the geographer Heinrich Mercator. Writings of the Duisburger Museumsverein, Volume V. Duisburger Museumsverein, Duisburg 1913, p. 17.