Aprutium

Method Copper engraved
Artist van den Keere, Pieter
Published P. Kaerius fe. [Cornelis Claesz & Jan Jansson, Amsterdam & Arnhem, c.1603]
Dimensions 86 x 124 mm
Notes A miniature map of Aprutium, modern Abruzzo in central Italy, engraved by Keere for Barent Langenes' Caert-Thresoor. This example, featuring Latin verso text, came from the 1603 printing of Bertius' Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum.

Pieter van den Keere (1571-c.1646), also known frequently as Petrus Kaerius, came to England in 1584, as a Protestant refugee from his home town of Ghent with his sister Colette, who married Jodocus Hondius in 1587. It was probably from Hondius that Keere learned to engrave. Both engravers left London in 1593 to settle in Amsterdam. His first set of miniature maps were produced for the Middelburg publisher Cornelis Claesz, for inclusion in Barent Langenes' Caert Thresoor. Keere began to engrave a series of miniature maps in 1599 in preparation for a small atlas of the British Isles. The maps were first published in 1617 by William Blaeu with plate numbers and Latin text. They then passed to George Humble, who published them in 1619 and then again in 1627, by which time they had become known colloquially as 'Miniature Speeds.'

Barent Langenes (fl. 1597/1598) was a Dutch bookseller and publisher. Little is known about his life and work, apart from his publication of 'Caert-Thresoor' in Middelburg in 1598. The atlas was for sale at Cornelis Claesz's shop in Amsterdam, and was later republished by Claesz, without the Langenes name. The atlas was published by several publishers in different languages between 1598 and 1650 and became quite popular this way. Today the Langenes atlas is mostly associated with Petrius Bertius, who published the first Latin edition in 1600 under the title 'Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum'.

Petrus Bertius (14th November 1565 – 13th October 1629) was a Flemish theologian, historian, geographer and cartographer and was related to Jodocus Hondius Sr. and Pieter van den Keere by marriage. Bertius studied at the University of Leiden and later traveled in Germany and Russia. In 1620 he emigrated to France where he was appointed as a cosmographer to the court Louis XIII. Bertius published a number of folio maps, but never published an atlas of his own. His maps were either separately published or included in atlases and books by other publishers.

Condition: Strong dark impression. Minor time toning to edges of sheet. Latin text on verso.
Framing unmounted
Price £150.00
Stock ID 50221

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