Note 731 — Chapter VII · (continued 2)

Dr. J. van Raemdonck published Gérard Mercator, sa Vie et ses Œuvres, in 1869; a paper in the nature of a supplement by him, “Relations commerciales entre Gérard Mercator et Christophe Plautin à Anvers,” was published in the Bull. de la Soc. géog. d’Anvers, iv. 327. There is a succinct account of Mercator by Eliab F. Hall published in the Bulletin (1878, no. 4) of the American Geographical Society. Raemdonck (p. 312) has shown that the old belief in the Latinization of Koopman, or Kaufmann, as the original name of Mercator, is an error,—his family name having been Cremer, which in Flemish signified the German Kaufmann and the Latin Mercator. Raemdonck also shows that Mercator was born in the Pays de Waas, March 5, 1512.