Mercator by Nicholas Crane

The fascinating story of one of the great mapmakers of his or any time. Working carefully with limited data the world began to appear. Carefully separating error and fact and conjecture and gathering some data of his own, he beautifully brought a world together. This was done over many years in a hostile divided world of intrigue and shifting alliances. Imprisoned for his unspoken beliefs, he ran the gauntlet of his age surviving only with the help of Erasmus. It seems he was a quiet protestant who kept his thoughts to himself to do his work but left clues of his true feelings hidden in his work.