Statue of St. Bertin

St. Bertin (c. 615 – c. 709) is a saint and abbot of Saint-Omer.

He was born near Coutances. At an early age he entered the monastery of Luxeuil in France where, under the austere rule of St. Columbanus, he prepared himself for his future missionary career. About the year 638 he set out, in company with two confrères, Mummolin and Ebertram, for the extreme northern part of France in order to assist his friend and kinsman, Bishop St. Omer, in the evangelization of the Morini. This country, now in the département of Pas-de-Calais, was then one vast marsh, studded here and there with hillocks and overgrown with seaweed and bulrushes. On one of these hillocks, Bertin and his companions built a small house whence they went out daily to preach the word of God among the natives, most of whom were still heathens.

Gradually some converted heathens joined the little band of missionaries and a larger monastery had to be built. A tract of land called Sithiu had been donated to Omer by a converted nobleman named Adrowald. Omer now turned this whole tract over to the missionaries, who selected a suitable place on it for their new monastery. Additional villages^[1] were granted by Count Waldebert, later a monk at Bertin's monastery of Sythiu and eventually abbot of Luxueil and canonized, who gave his son at the baptismal font to Bertin, from whom the boy received his name and his education.^[2] The community grew so rapidly that in a short time this monastery also became too small and another was built where the city of St. Omer now stands.

The fame of Bertin's learning and sanctity was so great that in a short time more than 150 monks lived under his rule, among them St. Winnoc and his three companions who had come from Brittany to join Bertin's community and assist in the conversion of the heathen. When nearly the whole neighbourhood was Christianized, and the marshy land transformed into a fertile plain, Bertin, knowing that his death was not far off, appointed Rigobert, a pious monk, as his successor, while he himself spent the remainder of his life preparing for a happy death. Bertin began to be venerated as a saint soon after his death. His feast day is celebrated on 5 September.

Shortly after Bertin's death the abbey received the name of Saint-Bertin. Mummolin, perhaps because he was the oldest of the missionaries, was abbot of the two monasteries until he succeeded the deceased St. Eligius as Bishop of Noyon, about the year 659. Waldebert's son Bertin, adopted by Bertin the founder, then became the third abbot.^[3]

Ruins of the church Saint-Bertin, c. 1850

In medieval times the Abbey of St. Bertin was famous as a centre of sanctity and learning. The Annales Bertiniani (830–882; Mon. Germ. Hist. Script. I, 419–515) are important for the contemporary history of the West Frankish Kingdom.^[4] The abbey church, now in ruins, was one of the finest fourteenth-century Gothic edifices. In later times its library, archives, and art-treasures were renowned both in and out of France. The monks were expelled in 1791 and in 1799 the abbey and its church were sold at auction.

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Abbey of Saint-Bertin

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. 

External links[link]

• "St. Bertin, Abbot", Rev. Alban Butler: The Lives of the Saints (1866), vol. IX

Jacques Bertin
Born	(1919-07-27)July 27, 1919 Maisons-Laffitte, Yvelines
Died	May 3, 2010(2010-05-03) (aged 90)[1] Paris, France
Occupation	Cartographer, Theorist

Jacques Bertin (July 27, 1918 – May 3, 2010^[1]) was a French cartographer and theorist, known from his book Semiologie Graphique (Semiology of Graphics), edited in 1967. This monumental work, based on his experience as a cartographer and geographer, represents the first and widest intent to provide a theoretical foundation to Information Visualization.^[2]

Biography[link]

Jacques Bertin was born in 1918 in Maisons-Laffitte, Yvelines. When he was 10, he received the first prize of cartography at primary school. He never had problems with drawing, and pursued interests including architecture, the teaching of drawing and cartography.^[2] Finally he ended up studying geography and cartography at the Sorbonne.

He became founder and director of the Cartographic Laboratory of the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE) in 1954 and director of education in 1957. In 1967 he became professor of the Sorbonne,^[3] and in 1974 he became director of education and director of the Geographical Laboratory of the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), which is part of the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE, VIe Section).^[4] Later in the 1970s he became head of research at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS).^[5]

In 1993 Bertin received the "Mercator-Medaille der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Kartographie" ^[6] and in 1999 the Carl Mannerfelt Gold Medal from the International Cartographic Association.

Bertin died in Paris on May 3, 2010.^[1]

Publications[link]

Jacques Bertin has published numerous scientific maps, papers and articles on map making, semiology, graphical information and graphic processing.

• 1967. Sémiologie Graphique. Les diagrammes, les réseaux, les cartes. With Marc Barbut [et al.]. Paris : Gauthier-Villars. (Translation 1983. Semiology of Graphics by William J. Berg.)
• 1969. Etude et réalisation d'un dispositift de goniométrie et d'observation de formes d'onde, en large bande.
• 1976. Experimental and Theoretical Aspects of Induced Polarization. 2 vol. With J. Loes. Berlin : Gebruder. Borntraeger.
• 1977. Graphique et le traitement graphique de l'information. With Serge Bonin [et al.].
• 1977. La graphique et le traitement graphique de l'information. Paris : Flammarion, 1977, 273 p. (translation 1981. Graphics and graphic information-processing by William J. Berg and Paul Scott).
• 1992. Harper atlas of world history. with Pierre Vidal-Naquet. N.Y. : Harper Collins.
• 1997. Atlas historique universel. Panorama de l'histoire du monde. With J. Devisse, D. Lavallée and J. Népote. Genève : Éd. Minerve, 180 p.
• 2006. Nuovo atlante storico Zanichelli / sotto la direzione di Pierre Vidal-Naquet ; direzione della cartografia.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Interview with Jacques Bertin
• Jacques Bertin's Semiology of Graphics
• Graphische Variablen im UMN MapServer (German)
• Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales page for Bertin (French)