Squaring the circle

[Joaquim Alves Gaspar]

Dear maphisters,

In his book about the loxodrome and the Mercator projection, Raymond D'Hollander refers to a comment made by Gerard Mercator (and also mentioned to by Hermann Wagner in 1915) that I can't find anywhere. The comment is about graduating the scale of latitudes of the 1569's world map, a task whose diffulty could only be compared to squaring the circle. I have already confirmed that it is not in the chart's legends.

Can someone help, please?

Joaquim Alves Gaspar
CIUHCT, University of Lisbon

[Wolfgang Köberer]

Dear Joaquim Alves Gaspar,

from F.W. Krücken, "Ad Maiorem Gerardi Mercatoris Gloriam", Vol. 1, Münster 2009, 163, I take that the quote about the difficulty of representing the surface of the globe on a plane surface is in the "vita" of Mercator by Walter Ghim. The quote is as follows:
"sic quadraturae circuli respondet, ut nihil deesse videatur, praeterquam quod demonstratione careat".

I don't have access to the "Vita" but you might try to look it up. You should have a look at Krücken's work, by the way, which is collected in three (rather unexpensive) volumes published by Verlagshaus Monsenstein and Vannerdat in Münster (Germany).

Best regards

Wolfgang Köberer

[Joaquim Alves Gaspar]

Dear Wolfgang,

Your answer was most helpful, thanks! After all it wasn't a writting by Mercator himself but a testimony from his biographer. I did find Kruecken's text in his internet page (unfortunately I can't read German).

Best wishes,
Joaquim

[Joaquim Alves Gaspar]

I have found Walter Ghim's text translated into English. Here: http://mail.nysoclib.org/Mercator_Atlas/MCRATS.PDF. Thanks again.