Focused on the Malay Peninsula, the map delineates the individual sultanates, and shows "Sincapura" as an island. Irian Jaya, as "Terra di Papous", appears as an island separate from New Guinea, "following an error which began in the 1590s which confused Irian Jaya and Seram, and continued in the seventeenth century owning to the uncertainty as to whether or not Irian Jaya was connected to the mainland of New Guinea (and whether New Guinea, in turn, was connected to Australia)" (Suarez).

A large swathe of northern Western Australia appears along the bottom edge of the map. While incorporating the discoveries of Willem Janszoon, Jan Carstensz., Abel Tasman, and the shipwreck at "Trials I", it curiously retains the nomenclature of Marco Polo (perhaps honouring a fellow Italian?) with "Beach Prov", "Regno di Maleteur", and "Regno di Lucach" appearing in the most western region.

This map, of Southeast Asia and northern Australia, was engraved by Franciscus Donia-Messis, originally drawn by Giacomo Cantelli da Vignola, and also used as a model by Coronelli for his map of the same area. It was published by Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi in his atlas 'Mercurio Geografico overo Guida geografica in tutte le parti del mondo conforme le tavole di Giacomo Cantelli da Vignola' (1688).

The mapmakers
Giacomo Cantelli da Vignola (1643-1695) was an Italian cartographer and engraver. He joined the retinue of Count Rinieri Marescotti, and whilst travelling with the Count, met the publisher Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi, who became his partner. He eventually became court geographer to Reggio Francesco II d'Este, Duke of Modena.

Founded in 1633, the de Rossi printing press was the most important and prolific in Rome during the seventeenth century. Just before the death of its founder, Giuseppe de Rossi (1570-1639), it was inherited by his son Giovanni Giacomo (1627-1691), under whom it produced some of its finest work. These included the etchings of several influential artists, such as Pietro Testa, Giovan Francesco Grimaldi and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, as well as a wealth of cartographic material.

From the mid 1680s, Giovanni Giacomo published his first atlas, the 'Mercurio Geografico', in partnership with his adopted son Domenico de Rossi, who would ultimately become best-known as a sculptor. The first edition consisted of 30 maps dated from between 1669 and 1715, generally derived from the work of Cantelli da Vignola, the important seventeenth century cartographer whose fine style of bold engraving would have great influence on Vincenzo Coronelli.