A map of South America first printed in 1598 for inclusion in Barent Langenes ‘Caert-Thresoor’ pocket atlas. Whereas other non-European maps were derived from those of Cornelis Claesz, this does not appear to copy his two-sheet map from 1592-94. It appears to draw from that of Cornelis de Jode also. Claesz was also the publisher of most of the editions of this popular little atlas. The engraver is unknown, but a remarkable amount of information is included. “It sets a new standard for minor atlases. The small maps are extremely well engraved: neat and clear, elegantly composed” (Koeman).

“This small book had a complicated publication history and was clearly very popular in its day. Little is known about Langenes, and his association with the atlas is not fully understood. He was a printer in the town of Middelburg, the capital of the province of Zeeland. This atlas was brought out at a time of increasing competition for the pocket-sized atlas market. Not only was the miniature Ortelius, ‘Spieghel der Werelt’, first published in 1577, still being sold, but in this year of 1598, an Italian version of it was also first published in Brescia. At the same time Zacharias Heyns was publishing his ‘Le Miroir Du Monde’ in Amsterdam; within a decade others would follow.

‘Petrus Bertius (1565-1629) was the librarian of the University of Leyden and was a relative of both van den Keere and Hondius. He wrote a completely new text for which the Langenes plates were used in 1600. This was a reversion to normal practice, because in the Langenes editions the text was specifically written for the maps. Cornelis Claesz was the publisher of both the Langenes and the Bertius series until his death in 1609 when they were continued by his successor Henry Laurentz” (Burden). There was a second edition of the Bertius in 1602-[03] and a third edition appeared in 1606. This is the second state of the map introduced in 1599 in which the latitudinal scale was added to the left-hand border. Provenance: Juan and Peggy Rada Collection. Koeman (1967-70) vol. 1, p. 60 & vol. 2, p. 252; Nordenskiold (1979) no. 14 (1600 Bertius) & no. 131 (1599); Phillips (1909-) 3409; Shirley (2004) T.LAN 1e.