A magnificent manuscript wall map centred on the Duchy of Milan, but extending to include most of western Lombardy, some of the eastern territories of Piedmont, and southern Switzerland: from the Canton of Ury and Monte di S. Gottardo in the north, Vigevano in the south, Monte Rosa and the village of Mothen in the west, and Lake Iseo in the east. In addition to Milan, the cities of Milan, Bergamo, Crema, Vercelli, Lodi, Biella, and Novara are shown, with their coats-of-arms; as well as numerous smaller towns and villages, rivers, lakes, roads, mountains and hills. The map is decorated with a very large compass rose, and and bordered to the north by a large vacant territory in Switzerland: "Li Grisoni".

This apparently unrecorded map, is extremely detailed, recording the boundaries of all the local regions, and includes the small principality, Principato di Masserano, which remained an independent state, latterly allied to the House of Savoy, until 1767, when Prince Vittorio Filippo Fieschi (1713-1777) relinquished his governance, and sold it to Savoy, and when this map was probably created.

The wider Lombardy region, ruled from Milan, had been hotly contested for centuries, by would-be invaders, and communal overlords, but when Francesco II Sforza died childless in 1535, "Milan devolved to Charles V and was administered by a Spanish governor, who maintained traditional institutions. The duchy consisted of nine provinces, each dominated by a small group of families resident in their provincial capitals. Central administration from Milan rested primarily with the Senate, a judicial and legislative body that maintained its authority under Spanish rule despite inevitable confrontations with the governor. Official Spanish policy aimed at maintaining an equilibrium between centralization and home rule... Milan's strategic importance as the gateway to Italy remained a keystone of Spain's imperial design, and, with war and revolt north of the Alps, Milan served as a critical staging area for men and supplies on the "Spanish road" from Genoa to Lombardy and from there through the Alpine passes to the Rhineland. During the Revolt of the Netherlands (1567), the Netherlands' Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for independence, and the Thirty Years' War (1618–48), Milan was a focal point of Spanish military preparation" (Giuseppe di Palma).

From 1713, the wider Lombardy region was ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs, who retained it until 1796, when they yielded possession to France.