Mercator was influenced by Ptolemy and Marco Polo but he did not bow to them. He knew how to use their writings while also rectifying and surpassing them, integrating the pragmatic knowledge gleaned from recent discoveries into his work.

Claudius Ptolemy

Almageste influenced Mercator’s representation of the outline of the Mediterranean basin, the interior of Europe, the islands dotting the Gulf of Arabia, the sources of the Nile, the mountains of Africa, the waterways that empty into the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea, those that cross Asia, the Indus and Ganges Rivers on the Indian subcontinent and a few other rivers in China and Siberia.

Yet Mercator added considerable breadth and depth to Ptolemy’s legacy. He represented the recently discovered American continent, raised Africa from beneath the blank Southern Ocean all the way to the Cape of Good Hope and revealed new parts of Asia between Cape Comorin and the Malacca peninsula. Groenlandia, Islandia, Norvegia, Livonia and many other names of cities and kingdoms were also new, replacing the ones used by Ptolemy in his day.

Robinson projection of Mercator’s terrestrial globe with an overlay of Ptolemy’s map. @ UNIL

Mercator’s terrestrial globe shows most of the discoveries or geographical reconnaissance reported by contemporary mariners and great explorers. Obviously, these features did not appear in Ptolemy’s work. Mercator thus went a long way towards discrediting the Greek geographer, whose writings were gradually consigned to the dustbin. Mercator can be regarded as the agent of this change and as the founder of modern geography.

Marco Polo

In 1271 Marco Polo left Venice to explore the Orient. Accompanied by two other Venetian merchants, he crossed the high Anatolian plateaus, Iran, Upper Afghanistan, Pamir and Chinese Turkestan, finally arriving in Beijing. He remained in China for sixteen years, travelling extensively around the country. On his return journey he visited Indochina, Ceylon, the shorelines of India and other regions unexplored until then such as the Arabian coast, Ethiopia and the African seaboard down to Zanzibar. Polo’s 20-year odyssey was related from 1298 in The Description of the World, also called The Book of the Marvels of the World.

Mercator drew heavily on this compendium. His globe features a host of islands, kingdoms, provinces and places in the locations cited by Polo, sometimes even with the same spelling.

List of islands

Cacotoria ins[sula] olim Dioscoridis	Cacotoria Island, formerly called Dioscures
Zamzibar visa insula sed nondum perlustrata	Zanzibar, seen but net yet explored Zanzibar is shown, as on Behaim’s globe, south-east of Madagascar
Insulas hic uspiam esse testatur M. Paul. Venetus in quibus certo anni tempore ruc avis apparet tam vastae magnitudinis ut elephantem in sublime attollat	Marcus Paulus Venetus states that there are islands somewhere in this area. At certain times of the year one can observe the rokh, a bird so large that by accounts it can lift an elephant into the air. Several nameless islands below Zanzibar are mentioned in this reference.
Seylan insula	Seylan Island Ceylon, placed in the Gulf of Mohabbat
Java major, cujus incolae antropophagi sunt	Java Minor, divided into eight kingdoms No doubt Borneo
Java minor in octo divisa regna	Java Minor, divided into eight kingdoms No doubt Sumatra or Bali
Petan	This island, located near Java Minor, is undoubtedly Bintam or Bintang, at the tip of the Malaysian peninsula.
Lequeos	Lieu-Kieu, in the Bay of Bengal (Gangeticus sinus)
Zipangri insula gemmis atque auro longe ditissima frustra obsidione tentata a magno Cham Cublai Tartarorum 6 Imp[erator] anno 1289	The island of the Cipanguese, the richest by far in gems and gold, threatened in vain in 1289 with a blockade by the great Kublai Khan, sixth emperor of the Tartars. The archipelago of Japan

List of islands

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List of kingdoms and provinces

Mangi nobilissima provincia 9 habet in se regna & 1200 civitates, evicta est a Tartaroru[m] Imp[eratore] Cublai anno 1268. Inter Mangi aute[m] et Zipangri insulam 7448 numeratas ait a nautis insulas M. Paul. Venetus lib. 3 cap. 8.	Mangi, the noblest of the provinces containing nine kingdoms and 1200 towns and cities, was defeated by the Emperor of the Tartars, Kublai, in 1268. Paulus Venetus says in book 3 chapter 8 that between Mangi and the island of Cipango the sailors counted 7448 islands.
Sian regnu[m]	Kingdom of Siam
Cathay regnum opulentiss[um]	The very rich kingdom of Cathay

List of kingdoms and provinces

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List of cities

• Milapar (Mylapore)
• Camul
• Ezina
• Siudu
• Canfu (Ganfu)
• Chyna
• Carocoram
• Calacia
• Camballu (Beijing)
• Lop
• Callecut (Calcutta)

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