In 1537, theologian and geographer Wolfgang Wissenburg dedicated an eight-sheet map of the Holy Land to Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the spiritual leader of the English Reformation. The large map now survives in only a single copy, held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, but its influence can plainly be seen in the cartographic representation of the Holy Land that developed throughout the subsequent decades. The work of an Italian cartographer Giovanni della Gatta is particularly indebted to Wissenburg's map.

In 1557 della Gatta published his own "description of Palestine and the Holy Land" (trans.), which was heavily based on the cartography of the earlier map. Combining an aerial and a cartographical perspective, the map presents important cities, towns, and religious sites, many of which are identified in an alphabetical key situated in the Mediterranean.

Jerusalem, naturally, is especially impressive and shown in such detail that individual buildings, including the Temple on Mount Moriah, can be distinguished. The Exodus from Egypt also appears, represented as a route through the wilderness, with the Israelite encampments stationed in columns either side of the mountains of the Sinai Peninsula.

This interesting combination of pictorial view and cartographic description makes della Gatta's map both geographically informative and intricately decorative. Furthermore, being much smaller than Wissenburg's original work, it would have been less expensive, more accessible, and have therefore circulated more widely. The present example, for instance, was compiled in a Lafreri atlas, which allowed the client to select individual maps from a variety of cartographers to be brought together in a single volume.