Arnold Colom's version of his father, Jacob's, world map, 'Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica Ac Hydrographica Tabula. Auct. Iacobus Colom' (1650), but with a brand new border. The cartography of both maps is very similar in style and geography to Henricus Hondius's 'Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica Ac Hydrographica Tabula. Auct: Henri: Hondio' (1633, Shirley 336). However, Colom pere also borrowed from Hugo Allard's 'Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula. Auct. Hugo Allart' (c1650, Shirley 378): the discoveries of Willem Janszoon and Jan Carstensz in northern Australia are recorded, just as in Hondius's map, but Colom "improved" on Hondius by following Allard and adding a sketchy outline of Western Australia, with accounts of Dutch discoveries there, but not to the full extent of Abel Tasman's voyages of 1642-1644.

Arnold's map, as here, appears in his 'Zee-Atlas' from 1654 – 1658, and some examples of the 'Werelts-Water-Deal' of 1663. The two hemispheres are surrounded by six "robust statuesque figures typically representing Day and Night, and the four elements; each, except for Mother Earth, proudly unclothed. There are three small cartouches, one of which repeats the title in Dutch, one is a note to the "Benevole Spectator" (kind beholder) of the map, another relates to Christopher Columbus having discovered that part of the world in 1492" (Brown).

At some point, "the map came into the hands of Frederick de Wit who reduced its size by re-engraving a new title 'Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula' below the original top border" (1660 Shirley 421). De Wit also borrowed some of the elements from the border of Hugo Allard and Jacob Colom's map, with a similar sun within a zodiac circle between swags of fruit and foliage at the upper edge, but the overall effect is superior in every way to the earlier maps.

The mapmaker
Arnold Colom, the son of Jacob Colom, was, like his father, a bookseller, printer, and chartmaker. He would appear to have produced only two maritime atlases throughout his career: a pilot of the Mediterranean, and a sea atlas of the world. The reasons for this are unclear although with the market so dominated by the likes of Janssonius, Goos, and Doncker, his work might have struggled to secure a foot-hold. However, his 'Zee Atlas', which Colom published between 1654–58, was one of the largest format sea atlases produced in Amsterdam, with each chart printed from an oversized copperplate. According to Koeman it is: "One of the most important atlases in the well known category of Dutch sea-atlases".