Petrus Bertius

Bertius published much in mathematics, and historical and theological works, but he is now best known as a cartographer with his edition of the Geographia of Ptolemy, which includes Mercator's Ptolemaic atlas from 1578 as well as parallel Greek and Latin texts.

Petrus Bertius studied at Leiden University. Andreas Rivinus is recorded as having studied under Petrus Bertius. The recorded working language is Latin. Employment is recorded with Collège de France, Collège de Boncourt and Leiden University. Work by Petrus Bertius is recorded in the collections of Het Scheepvaartmuseum.

He was born in Beveren (Alveringem), the son of a Flemish preacher Pieter Michielszoon Bardt, who left Flanders for religious exile in London around 1568, with his family. In 1577 Petrus Bertius returned to the Netherlands, to study at the University of Leiden. He supported himself by tutoring younger students and continued travelling in Europe. In 1593 he was appointed to subregent of the Leiden Statencollege, marrying in the same year Maritgen, daughter of Johannes Kuchlinus, the first regent of the Statencollege, whom he would succeed after his death in 1606 as a regent. He was also connected by marriage to Jodocus Hondius and Pieter van den Keere, his brothers-in-law and both cartographers, and this would influence his later life.

In 1618 Bertius was given an appointment as a cosmographer to the court of Louis XIII. His career in cartography had started in 1598, with the publication of a Latin edition of a miniature atlas Caert Thresoor by Barent Langenes, which he translated as Tabulae contractae (1600). His Theatrum geographiae veteris had commended him to King Louis. When his academic prospects in the Netherlands were cut down, he went to France. In 1620 he converted to the Catholic Church, and became professor of rhetoric at the Collège de Boncourt, a part of the University of Paris. In 1622 Louis XIII set up a new personal chair in mathematical sciences in the royal college for Bertius, and granted him the title of royal historian. He died in Paris.

• Illustration — Map of Livonia (1603) from Petrus Bertius, Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum. • 1609: Liick-oratie over de doot van den Eerweerdighen ende wytberoemden Heere Jacobus Arminius • 1612: Hymenaeus desertor: sive de sanctorum apostasia problemata duo. (1: An fieri possit ut justus deserat justitam suam? 2: An quae deseritur fuerit vera justitia?) • 1616: Commentariorum Rerum Germanicarum libri tres, including commentary on the Tabula Peutingeriana • 1619: Theatri Geographiae Veteris, doi:10.3931/e-rara-85904 (Digitized Edition at E-rara). • 1625: Notitia Chorographica Episcopatuum Galliae

• Illustration — Galliae Belgicae Veteris • Illustration — Nova Germaniae Inferioris • Illustration — Zeelandia • Illustration — Carte de l'Europe • Illustration — Carte de l'Afrique • Illustration — Carte de l'Asie • Illustration — Iapan • Illustration — Carte de l'Amerique