The Mercator Atlas of Europe

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Summary: Atlas Extraordinaire--Review in "Mercator's World" magazine
Review: ...Those not able to visit the relic in person can examine a facsimile of the one-of-a-kind atlas, compiled by Mercator around 1570, with an inaugural release by Walking Tree Press. The seventeen replica maps are accompanied by a richly illustrated, large-format book - published previously in French and Dutch - featuring essays by an international team of map scholars.

The authors leave no aspect of the fascinating history of the "Atlas of Europe" unexamined...The seventeen frameable facsimile maps are newly color-corrected and expertly printed. The text illustrations are drawn from collections throughout Europe and the United States. The hefty volume, stored in its own green slipcase, provides readers with a tactile adventure --something that tends to be overlooked in modern publishing - as well as a feast for the eyes and mind. Walking Tree's elegant edition combines the high art of maps with first-rate scholarly pursuits - a marvelous union Mercator would endorse. --- "Mercator's World" November/December 1997

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Summary: Review in the January 1998 issue of Midwest Book Review
Review: Born Gerhard Kremer of German parents in the town of Rapelmonde near Antwerp on March 5, 1512, Gerardus Mercator (like many other intellectuals of his time, very early in his life Latinized his German name) was a mapmaker, scholar, and religious thinker whose interests ranged from mathematics to calligraphy to the origin of the universe.

In 1544 he fell victim to the Inquisition, partly due to his Protestant beliefs and partly due to suspicions aroused by his wide travels in search of data for his maps. He was fortunate to be released after seven months with the charges of heresy lifted and his head and limbs still intact.

His 1564 wall map of the British Isles (included in his atlas) was the first detailed and accurate geographical picture of those islands -- and was used by a Scottish traitor to help France and Spain invade Britain and overthrow the Protestant Tudors. Mercator was one of the first mapmakers to cut up maps and bind them inside boards, later coining the term 'atlas' to refer to such collection of maps. One of the most revolutionary inventions in the history of cartography, Mercator's cylindrical world map projections (first used in 1569) enabled navigators to plot a long course in straight lines and has greatly influenced our image of the world to this very day.

In 1967 an anonymous buyer purchased a large, tattered book of maps in a second-hand bookshop in Belgium and unknowingly brought to the present a long-lost atlas by this renowned 16th century cartographer. The Mercator Atlas of Europe: Facsimile of the Maps By Gerardus Mercator Contained In The Atlas Of Europe, Circa 1570-1572 is a beautiful book showcasing seventeen facsimile map prints (suitable for framing) and a large-format 96-page book with 100 illustrations (80 in color). The Mercator Atlas of Europe is an ideal and highly recommended memorial fund acquisition selection for academic and community libraries.

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Summary: Named for a god -- Fit for a prince -- Lost for 400 years
Review: The year was 1570. Legendary mapmaker Gerard Mercator,inventor of the Mercator Projection and the first to name a collectionof maps for the Greek god Atlas, carefully separated his previously-published wall maps of Europe to prepare a complete atlas of Europe for a grand tour by the young Crown Prince of Cleves.

Then Mercator's magnificent achievement -- thought to be the first atlas ever made, remarkable in its accuracy and exotic in its Latin names and period illustrations -- disappeared from view, and languished, forgotten, for centuries. Only in 1967 did the tattered, priceless atlas resurface -- purchased unrecognized by a Dutch collector from an antiquarian bookstore in Brussels, Belgium. Among other treasures, the atlas contains the only surviving copy of Mercator's 1554 map of Europe and the only two known manuscript maps ever made by the famed 16th century mapmaker.

The original atlas, acquired in 1997 for a reputed $1.2 million, is now in the British Library, where it can be viewed by special appointment only. This spectacular limited edition facsimile collection contains the only reproductions ever made of the atlas maps. Seventeen unbound maps (each 21.625 x 16 inches) displaying Europe from the British Isles to Turkey and from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, perfect for study or framing, and a richly illustrated, large-format companion book that "Discover" magazine(R) describes as "opulent" are tucked into a gold-embossed linen portfolio and laminated slipcase.

Painstakingly and faithfully reproduced and expertly printed on fine ivory stock, the maps and book comprise a portfolio of great beauty and unprecedented historical significance, showing the first detailed images of early modern Europe.

The Mercator Atlas of Europe will captivate the minds and senses of map lovers, historians, genealogists, collectors, archaeologists, and, in fact, anyone who appreciates the beauty and sense of discovery that attend old maps. It is, truly, what "Mercator's World" magazine(R) calls "a feast for the eyes and mind" and "a marvelous union that Mercator would endorse."

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Summary: A Review in the June 1998 issue of "Discover" magazine
Review: When a collector bought a ragged book of maps in a secondhand Belgian bookstore in 1967, he had no idea he had turned up a lost cartographic treasure: an early atlas created by the sixteenth-century cartographer Gerardus Mercator. The 17 maps, reprinted for the first time - in exquisite, full-size facsimiles tucked with an opulent book into a slipcase - are justifiably pricey. Margaret Foley, "Discover" magazine, June 1998