|
||
|
|
|
|
A finely engraved miniature map of the Ethiopian Empire (referred to here as the “Empire of the Abyssinians”), published in Amsterdam by Jodocus Hondius II as part of Petrus Bertius’s Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum, a pocket atlas that succeeded in the early European market for such books.
The map depicts the highlands of Ethiopia and surrounding regions, including Nubia, the Indian Ocean (labeled Sinus Barbaricus), and areas as far west as present-day Angola (Angola) and Congo (Anzicana) and as far south as the so-called Insulae Laurentii (Madagascar). Interior features include the legendary source of the Nile. Numerous kingdoms are marked—Amara, Tigremahon, Baru, Balli, Barnagasso—many of which reflect a blend of historical Ethiopian provinces and imagined states derived from European reports and missionary literature.
The title cartouche at upper left features a distinctive strapwork design typical of early 17th-century Dutch decorative cartography. The map is an echo of the European fascination with Prester John, the legendary Christian monarch thought to rule a powerful inland kingdom in Africa. This vision endured well into the 17th century, with Ethiopia being one of the main candidates for the mythical realm.
Petrus Bertius was a Flemish historian, theologian, geographer, and cartographer. Known in Dutch as Peter de Bert, Bertius was born in Beveren. His father was a Protestant preacher and his family fled to London around 1568. The young Bertius only returned to the Low Countries in 1577, to attend the University of Leiden. A bright pupil, Bertius worked as a tutor and was named subregent of the Leiden Statencollege in 1593. He ascended to the position of regent in 1606, upon the death of the former regent, who was also Bertius’ father-in-law. However, due to his radical religious views, he eventually lost his teaching position and was forbidden from offering private lessons.
His brothers-in-law were Jodocus Hondius and Pieter van den Keere, who were both prominent cartographers. Bertius began his own cartographic publishing in 1600 when he released a Latin edition of Barent Langenes’ miniature atlas Caert Thresoor (1598). He published another miniature atlas that first appeared in 1616.
By 1618, Bertius was named cosmographer to Louis XIII. He converted to Catholicism and took up a position as professor of rhetoric at the Collège de Boncourt (University of Paris). In 1622, Louis XIII created a chart of mathematics specifically for Bertius and named him his royal historian. He died in Paris in 1629.
