1569年麥卡托世界地圖標題為「Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigantium Emendate Accommodata 」(文藝復興時期的拉丁文,意思是「適用於導航且更完整的全新地球儀」)。標題表明格拉杜斯·麥卡托想要展示當代世界的地理知識,以及「修正」圖表使其變得對水手更實用。他的「修正」方式是將球體上的恆定方位航線(恆向線)映射到平面圖上的直線,這是麥卡托投影法的特徵。雖然該地圖的地理資訊已被現代知識所取代,但這種投影被證明是在地圖製作史上的里程碑,這啟發地圖歷史學家諾登舍爾德寫道:「自托勒密之後,地圖製作史上無人能及魯佩爾蒙德的大師」[2]。麥卡托投影法預示著導航圖表進入新時代,而之後的基礎仍舊會是麥卡托投影法。
Nordenskiöld, Adolf Eric, Periplus : An essay on the early history of charts and sailing-direction translated from the Swedish original by Francis A. Bather. With reproductions of old charts and maps., Stockholm, 1897
Nordenskiöld, Adolf Eric, Facsimile-atlas till kartografiens äldsta historia English [Facsimile-atlas to the early history of cartography with reproductions of the most important maps printed in the XV and XVI centuries translated from the Swedish by J. A. Ekelöf and C. R. Markham], Kraus Reprint Corporation and New York Dover Publications London Constable 1973, 1889, ISBN 978-0486229645
Shirley, Rodney W., The mapping of the world : early printed world maps 1472-1700 4, Riverside, Conn.: Early World Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0970351807
Ptolemy, Claudius, Cosmography, Leicester: Magna, 1990, ISBN 978-1854221032. 15世紀手稿《Codex Lat V F.32》的地圖在那不勒斯國家圖書館。
1569年之前的世界地圖
de la Cosa, Juan, Map of Juan de la Cosa, 1500 Nordenskiöld Periplus, plate XLIII.
Ribero, Diego, The second Borgian map by Diego Riber, 1529 Nordenskiöld plates XLVIII-XLIX .
This portrait appears in the 1596 version of his Atlas It was made in 1574, when Mercator was 62, by the engraver Frans Hogenberg who contributed many of the topographical images in Civitates Orbis Terrarum. See the German wikipedia(德語:Frans Hogenberg) and commons.