Petrus Bertius of Flanders was resident in Paris and Cosmographer to King Louis XIII of France. The first state of this map is very rare, indeed I was unable to locate an example for my book on the ‘Mapping of North America’. The second state was reworked and re-dated to 1640, this was undertaken by Michel van Lochom and is based on the fact that the other three continents all bear that date and two of them his name.

“The map is based on the Jodocus Hondius of America, 1618, published separately in Amsterdam. The only obvious improvement made is in the completion of the south coast of Tierra del Fuego. The second state bears major alterations. The entire west coast of North America, including nomenclature, is erased and replaced by a dotted coastline with the legend “PAYS NON ENCORE DESCOVERTS” (land not yet discovered). This reflects possibly an attempt to balance the two schools of thought at the time as to whether California was an island or not … The third state [offered here], dated 1646, appeared at the hand of Pierre Mariette and is found in the two recorded editions of the “Theatre Geographique de France” of 1650 and 1653. Mariette desired to get away from the French dependence on Dutch cartography, and following the lack of success of his atlas decided to concentrate his business on working with Nicolas Sanson whose reputation was growing” (Burden). Burden (1996) 209; Loeb-Larocque (1989) pp. 25-6, no. 5; Pastoureau (1980) p. 55; Pastoureau (1984) p. 345 & Mariette A, no. 5; Tooley (1973) p. 299; Wagner (1937) no. 351; Wheat (1957) vol. 1, p. 37 & no. 37.