Professional paper

The Origin of the Term 'Atlas'

Miljenko Lapaine orcid.org/0000-0002-9463-2329 ; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Geodesy, Zagreb, Croatia
Olga Perić ; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb, Croatia
Ivo Dubravčić ; Delft, The Netherlands

Abstract

In this paper the origin of the term 'atlas', as
a bound collection of maps, is considered. It is usually
thought to derive from the name of the Titan, Atlas,
who was punished by being forced to bear the entire
celestial sphere or universe on his shoulders. However,
on the basis of research into and translation of the
original Preface of Mercator's Atlas sive cosmographicae
meditationes de fabrica mvndi et fabricati figvra,
it has been determined that Mercator did not refer to
this legend, but named his atlas for the completely different
characteristics, such as wisdom, erudition and
humanity, of another Atlas.

Keywords

Atlas; atlas; Mercator

Hrčak ID:

27008

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/27008

Publication date:

30.6.2008.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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