Originally engraved by Johannes Blaeu circa 1672, but apparently never issued by him, although his erased signature is just discernible beneath Valk's imprint. "The map reflects the accuracy of Dutch cartography in the latter part of the seventeenth century, without trace of any hypothetical Antarctica, and included details of recent discoveries known to Blaeu through his position as chief cartographer with the Dutch East India Company" (Clancy).

The mapmaker
The Valk family firm was one of the most highly respected and enduring manufacturers of globes and maps in Europe. Gerard Valk, the family patriarch, apprenticed in London in the 1670s under the mapsellers David Loggan and Christopher Browne. Following his return to Amsterdam, in 1687, he formally established his own business, often working in concert with his brother-in-law, Petrus Schenk. Valk and Schenk would famously go on to produce an edition of Cellarius' Harmonica Macrocosmica (1708). While Valk was initially known for his monumental wall maps, he was tutored in the exceedingly difficult craft of globe-making by Pieter Maasz Smit, who specifically praised Valk in his 1698 treatise on globe making.

In 1700, Valk moved his enterprise into the Amsterdam shop formerly occupied by the legendary Jocodus Hondius.