Clive A. Burden LTD. Rare Maps, Antique Atlases, Books and Decorative Prints

The Mapping of North America

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This map of ‘Great Britain’ includes England, Wales, Scotland, and a portion of Ireland. It is derived from John Speed’s map of 1611 and according to Shirley, beleived to have been engraved by Salomon Rogiers. Soon after the publication of Petrus Bertius’ ‘Caert Thresoor’ in Frankfurt, 1612, the plates came into the possession of Johannes Cloppenburg. This is presumed to have been before 1616, as in that year Jodocus Hondius Junior (1594/5-1629) re-issued Bertius’ text with an entirely new, expanded series of 221 copperplate maps, of which this is one. Bertius (1565-1629) was the librarian of the University of Leyden and a brother-in-law to Jodocus Hondius. The maps were slightly larger in size and the book was dedicated to King Louis XIII of France. A rival publication was the miniature Ortelius atlas whose last edition had been in 1612. Another was the ‘Atlas Minor’ published by Jodocus Hondius senior and Johannes Janssonius from 1607. Following Hondius senior’s death in 1612 its publication was continued by his widow and sons in partnership with Janssonius and issues appeared in 1613 and 1614. Since the following edition did not appear until 1620 at the hands of Janssonius alone it appears that the partnership broke up sometime after 1614. This was quite probably the impetus for Hondius and Bertius to work together on a new edition of the ‘Caert Thresoor’. There were further editions in 1618 with Latin and French text. In the same year, Bertius was appointed Cosmographer to Louis XIII and spent the rest of his life in Paris. Sometime after the plates came into the possession of Willem Jansz. Blaeu whose son Joan in 1637 published an exceedingly rare atlas entitled ‘Atlas Minor sive Tabulæ Geographicæ’. It survives in only three known complete examples. Provenance: private English collection. King (2024) 1616; Koeman (1967-70) Lan 11A no. 23; refer Nordenskiöld (1979) 15; Phillips (1909-) 5925; Shirley (1991) 348; Shirley (2004) T.Bert 2b.
BERTIUS, Petrus

Magna Britannia

Amsterdam, 1616
FIRST EDITION. 105 x 140 mm., in good condition.
Stock number: 11771
£ 125
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