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.[4]
Mathematically, he is most well known for his treatise Logarithmo-technia on logarithms, published in 1668. In this treatise he described the Mercator series:
Nicholas Mercator was the first person to use the term natural logarithm.[5]
To the field of music, Mercator contributed the first precise account of 53 equal temperament, which was of theoretical importance, but not widely practised.[6]
He died at Versailles in 1687.
Works
Institutionum astronomicarum libri, 1685
1676: Institutionum astronomicarum, London (1685, Padua)
Institutionum astronomicarum libri duo (in Latin). Pavia: Tipografia del Seminario. 1685.
Kinkhuysen (1661) Algebra ofte Stelkonst, translated by N. Mercator, appears 1968 in Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton II: 295–364 with Newton commentary 364–446.
Wallis (1668) Review of Logarithmotechnia, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 3: 753–9, followed by "Some further Illustration" by N. Mercator, pp 759–64.
1670: "Some considerations … method of Cassini", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 5: 1168–75.