Late 16th & Early 17th Century Maps of Bermuda:  

The first English map of Bermuda was compiled by one of the settlers, Richard Norwood, in 1618, and this was used as the basis for the map of the islands published in John Smith's The Generall Historie Of Virginia, New-England, And The Summer Isles (London, 1624).

In 1622, Norwood evidently made a second map of the island, and a entry in the Registers of the Stationers' Company, for January 19th 1621 / 22 records:   "Nathanael Newbury  Entred for his copie vnder the hands of Master Doctor Goad, and Master Knight warden, A Plott or Mappe of Bermudas or the Summer Islands made by Richard Norwood."    Unfortunately, there is no known example of this map.  Newbery, a mapseller and publisher working in Popes Head Alley in London, is not known as a publisher of maps.  It is  possible that the map of Bermuda was published, but all examples lost.

John Speed's map of Bermuda, dated 1626, is derived either from the manuscript or printed version, as the map shows "names of the now Adventurer, viz. this yeare 1622..."

An important map of Bermuda from one of the earliest world atlases published by the Blaeu family, the Atlas Appendix ..., using plates engraved by Jodocus Hondius and purchased by Blaeu to form the nucleus of the world atlas. As an early "pull" from the plate, this is a notably good impression of this sought-after map. Based on the map of Richard Norwood, first published by John Speed in 1627, this proved to be the prototype for other English and Dutch maps throughout the next fifty years. The island is shown beneath a large decorative title cartouche and is divided into "Tribes" with the landowners listed below.

detail from Peter the Martyr's "Opera Legatio Babylonica Oceani Decas Poemata Epigrammata" published by Jacob Cromberger in 1511.

Peter the Martyr was tutor to the children of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and has been described as the first historian of the Americas.  He had extensive personal contacts with Spain's explorers, such as Christopher Columbus, as well as access to official archives.  His map, which is the first separate printed map devoted to the New World, was presumably copied from the relevant part of the 'Padron Real', the large map of the world on which the Spanish recorded all their discoveries.  It is generally assumed that the authorities were unhappy that such an accurate map found its way into the public domain, and suppressed it almost immediately, as it is only rarely found with the book.

The earliest map to show Bermuda readily available for the collector is the Gastaldi of the New World, published 1548.

Gastaldi: detail

A rare, large-scale chart by Arnold Colom and re-issued by Hendrick Doncker who had probably acquired the plate, in 1673, at the auction of Colom’s effects. The plate, like others of the period, extends well along the east coast, in this case as far as the mouth of the Delaware, and shows all the Gulf coastlines and the West Indies in good detail. Decoration is limited to the title cartouche while panels of text, in both English and Dutch describe "The Situation of the Bermudas".

The earliest chart of the island was compiled by Arent Roggeveen, and published by Pieter Goos in 1675.  The Speed and Roggeveen supply the two parallel delineations of the islands that were repeated by subsequent mapmakers, subsequently revised and updated throughout the early eighteenth century.  Clement Lempriere's chart, published in 1738, was the next major advance, and its influence is visible in subsequent maps and charts of the islands to the end of the century.

One feature of Speed's map (and so, presumably Norwood's original) is that Bermuda is depicted twice, once as the central feature of the map, and a second time showing the island in relation to the coasts of New England, the Carolinas and Hispaniola.  Derivatives of Speed's map retain this double image.  However, when some later mapmakers came to redraw the island, they discarded the sections of the mainland coast and Hispaniola, but carelessly failed to remove the associated small map of Bermuda, so the maps by Moll (1729), van der Aa (1729), Homann's Heirs (1737), and Zatta (1778) all retain this double image which, on Moll's map for example, is labelled 'Bermudos or Sommers Island' - an error not remarked by either Margaret Palmer, R.V. Tooley or, for that matter this author, until pointed out to me by my brother Miles.

Reference: Margaret Palmer The Mapping Of Bermuda A Bibliography of Printed Maps & Charts 1548-1970 Third Revised Edition Edited by R.V. Tooley, London: Holland Press Cartographica, 1983.