Mercator's Atlas of Europe (Enhanced‪)‬

Some time around 1572 Gerardus Mercator, the most famous map-maker of all time, compiled this first Atlas of Europe from copies of wall maps, cut and pasted to form a handy, portable atlas. It was made for the European grand tour of the crown prince of Cleves.


After the journey the atlas can be traced to a German monastery, but it disappeared in 1797 for almost 200 years. Then, in 1967 it was bought in a Belgian second-hand bookshop by an anonymous buyer, unaware of the ragged atlas’s amazing history. Twenty years later it passed into the collection of the British Library.


The atlas, as well as being a remarkable survivor and a snapshot of a vanished world, is a volume of great beauty. Maps of Europe by both Mercator and Abraham Ortelius sit alongside exquisitely detailed city plans like that of Ancona. 


The eBookTreasures facsimile edition allows you to magnify the tiniest details and fully appreciate why Gerardus Mercator was the greatest map-maker of his, or any other age. It is also enhanced with text and audio commentary on all pages.