The projection was invented by the Swiss mathematician Johann Heinrich Lambert and described in his 1772 treatise, Beiträge zum Gebrauche der Mathematik und deren Anwendung, part III, section 6: Anmerkungen und Zusätze zur Entwerfung der Land- und Himmelscharten, translated as, Notes and Comments on the Composition of Terrestrial and Celestial Maps.[1]