Fabrice Ducrest © UNIL

From 2004, on the initiative of Prof Georges Meylan, the Mercator globes were housed by BCUL-D’s Department of Manuscripts in its premises at Dorigny and examined a number of times. However, the BCUL-D’s infrastructure did not suffice to perform all the necessary analyses and work and, as a consequence, by end-2005 the globes were forgotten again.

In 2010, under the aegis of UNIL’s communication department Unicom, and with the collaboration of the Faculty of Geosciences and the Environment (FGSE), the Mercator globes project got a fresh start. The turning point came in 2010 when UNIL appointed Prof. Micheline Cosinschi (FGSE) and Géraldine Falbriard (Unicom / Media Relations) to spearhead the project.