Bertius’ Map of Southern India

Copper engraving, 9.6 x 13.7 cm, black and white, French text on verso. Map of Southern India and Sri Lanka on an east-west alignment, from the French text edition of Tabularum geographicarum contractarum libri, a geographical work which is normally catalogued under the name of its author, Bertius. The maps are generally reduced from the cartography in the folio Mercator-Hondius atlas, and were mostly engraved by Jodocus Hondius, eldest son of the printer, who also bears the same name. Geoffrey King calls them “undoubtedly the finest set of miniature maps ever printed” (Miniature Antique Maps p. 96).