This double-hemisphere world map appeared in the 1639 Madrid edition of the famous epic poem, 'Os Lusiadas', originally published in Portuguese by Luis Vaz de Camoens in 1572. The poem is a fantastical interpretation of the Portuguese voyages of discovery during the fifteenth and and sixteenth centuries, which the world map helps to illustrate. Both the voyages of Magellan and Ludovico di Varthema (Lud. Vartomano) are mentioned in text on the the Great Southern continent.

The geography is rather crude and outdated, compared to the Dutch maps that were being produced in the first half of the seventeenth century, and is more in tune with the work of the early to mid sixteenth century. The geographical features include a huge Tierra del Fuego, enlarged depictions of both the Amazon and River Plate in South America, and the Niger river in Africa; a massive Southern Continent dominates the lower part of the map, incorporating New Guinea (Nueva Guinea) with the coastal names of Beach and Lucach noted from Marco Polo's travel memoirs.

Although the geography is somewhat outdated, Spanish printed world maps - due to the authorities' suppression of any new cartographic information - are particularly rare: Shirley records only three other world maps published in Spain during the seventeenth century.