This month’s featured image is a segment from Gerard Mercator’s 1587 world map. It is a minimised version of Mercator’s 1569 cartographic masterpiece that allowed mariner’s to plot their voyages in a straight line. However, Mercator’s son, Rumold, reduced the map to the double hemispherical form so that it could adorn wealthy merchants’ walls.
Condensing the world to a viewable size preoccupied the English Renaissance. In 1570, Abraham Ortelius created the first Continue reading
Posted by hobbinol | Filed under Christopher Marlowe, English Renaissance, John Gillies, King Lear, maps, Tamburlaine Part One, The Tempest