Nicholas Mercator (1620–1687)
Born 1620 CE, died 1687 CE.
Nicholas (Nikolaus) Mercator (c. 1620, Prince-Bishopric of Lübeck – 1687, Versailles), also known by his German name Kauffmann, was a 17th-century mathematician. He was born in Eutin, Prince-Bishopric of Lübeck, Holy Roman Empire and educated at Rostock and Leyden after which he lived from 1642 to 1648 in the Dutch Republic. He lectured at the University of Copenhagen during 1648–1654 and lived in Paris from 1655 to 1657. He was mathematics tutor to Joscelyne Percy, son of the 10th Earl of Northumberland, at Petworth, Sussex (1657). He taught mathematics in London (1658–1682). On 3 May 1661 he observed a transit of Mercury with Christiaan Huygens and Thomas Streete from Long Acre, London. On 14 November 1666 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He designed a marine chronometer for Charles II. In 1682 Jean Colbert invited Mercator to assist in the design and construction of the fountains at the Palace of Versailles, so he relocated there, but a falling-out with Colbert followed. Mathematically, he is most well known for his treatise Logarithmo-technia on logarithms, published in 1668.
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