This like-new hardcover is near fine, no marks, pages are tight and appear unread, the book is tight, square, and unmarked. The dust jacket is unmarked, brown cloth boards, and bright gilt lettering on the spine of the book. The World of Gerard Mercator: The Mapmaker Who Revolutionized Geography by Andrew Taylor was published in 2004. Art illustrations are used with permission from national museums, universities, and galleries. This biography explores the life of Gerard Mercator, the visionary mapmaker who transformed the way we understand the world. As Andrew Taylor writes, "The story of discovery and mapmaking is one of pushing back shadows", and few in the past two thousand years have done more to expand the boundaries of human knowledge than Mercator. Living through the tumultuous sixteenth century, Mercator endured persecution by the Inquisition. Yet his brilliance in mapmaking prevailed, and his work forever changed the study of geography.