People called Ortelius a great intellectual. It sold like hot-cakes and went into one improved printing after another. He called it a Theatre of the Round World. He created the book Hooftman had asked for. Ortelius wasn't thinking in terms of books, but, with Mercator's help, he collected the best maps around. Finally, a trader named Hooftman came to Ortelius and said, in effect, "Can't you chop these bedsheets into two-foot squares and publish the map of the world in a book?" Up-to-date maps were serious business for seagoing Netherlands traders. For minor place-names to be readable, the map had to be immense. Mercator's world map had one nasty drawback. He knew good work, and he had a very high opinion of Ortelius. His own map of the world was an artistic triumph as well as an intellectual one. Mercator also saw the map as a work of art. He'd mount them on silk and render them in color. He'd decorate their borders and the empty reaches of land and sea. In 1554 he went into business buying and selling maps. Ortelius trained as an engraver - an artist/craftsman. He published a world map in that projection in 1569. He went on to become the great Renaissance mapmaker. He was an intellectual, a mathematician, and an innovator. Mercator, born in 1512, was older by 15 years. They were Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius. To see how it came into being, let's meet two Flemish friends. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them. Today, we make maps into a user-friendly information system.
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