Cartographer Petrus Bertius portrait. Fine engraving c1787.

by Bertius, Petrus

Bertius antique print, by Reiner Vinkeles after J. Buys, c1787. Bertius was an important mapmaker who established his reputation as a fine geographer with his text for his first world atlas, Tabularum geographicarum contractarum, a miniature edition of the world’s geography, which was first published in Amsterdam in 1616.  

Petrus Bertius was born at Beveren, Flanders, in 1565. As a religious refugee, Bertius settled in Amsterdam where he was professor of mathematics, and librarian, at the University of Leiden. In 1618 Bertius was appointed cosmographer to Louis XIII of France. Bertius moved to Paris and died there in 1629.

The first miniature pocket atlas was Barent Langene’s Caert Thresoor of 1598. A large number of the 169 maps were engraved by Petrus Kaerius (Van Den Keere). This small atlas was first sold in 1599 by Cornelis Claesz in Amsterdam. In 1600, Claesz published this atlas with a Latin text composed by Petrus Bertius, from then on, new editions were compiled, often enlarged with new maps.

This small engraving measures 5 3/4 x 3 1/2 inches (145 x 90mm). It is only 8mm from the right side of the page measuring 8 5/8 x 5 1/8 inches (220 x 130mm) but that is good as the left side of the engraving is slightly stretched (which frequently happened from the pressure applied on the plate when printing).