Petrus Bertius

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.

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.

A controversy arose with Francis Gomarus, the chief opponent of Arminianism, on the basis of the published version of the funeral oration.

The Hymenaeus desertor was widely circulated, but was unpopular: William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg disliked it, and Johan van Oldenbarnevelt with other politicians felt that Bertius had gone against them.

His career in cartography had started in 1598, with the publication of a Latin edition of a miniature atlas Caert Thresoor by Barent Langenes,[5] which he translated as Tabulae contractae (1600).