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A finely engraved miniature map of Africa issued in 1616 in Petrus Bertius’s Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum, one of the most important small-format atlases of the early 17th century. The map is attributed to Jodocus Hondius Jr., who engraved many of the atlas’s maps after Mercator and Ortelius models.
Africa is presented with a broadly recognizable coastline and a speculative interior. The Nile flows from two large lakes south of the equator—an enduring Ptolemaic feature—and several interior kingdoms are labeled, including Guinea, Nubia, Abissinia, Zanguebar, and Monomotapa. Coastal cities such as C. Verde, Loanda, Melinde, and C. Bonae Spei (Cape of Good Hope) are marked, while Madagascar (I. de S. Laurent) and numerous Indian Ocean islands fill the southeastern portion.
The French title at top reflects the intended francophone audience for this edition. The elegant strapwork title cartouche, delicate hand-coloring, and densely packed typography make this an appealing representative of the Bertius/Hondius collaboration and of the transitional moment between late Renaissance and early modern cartography.
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.
![Africa Corrected from Observations of Mess. of ye Royal Societies at London and Paris . . . . [Dedicated To Sir Isaac Newton!]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/111746.jpg)
