A bird's eye view of Rome, taken from Mount Gianicolo showing the city encircled by her ancient walls with the Tiber flowing through, and the Albani hills depicted to the left in the background.

The highly detailed and descriptive view draws upon the work of the Frenchman Hugues Pinard (italianized to Ugo). It was engraved by Jocob Bos and published by Antonio Salamanca in Rome. The work is dedicated to cardinal George d'Armagnac (1501-1585), a French humanist, and patron of the arts, who was made cardinal in 1544. The city's streets and the most important monuments are clearly recognisable, and for the first time the ancient ruins are faithfully depicted, as is the layout of the Renaissance city. Below the plan is a table listing the city gates, hills, baths, circuses, obelisks, triumphal arches, columns, temples, fora, palaces, and important houses.

So effective was Pinard's rendering of the city that it would become the template for views of the Eternal City for the next two hundred years; its most eager imitator being Braun and Hogenberg who would published a smaller version in there hugely influential 'Civitatus Orbis Terrarum' (1572).

The plate, here in its second state, has the imprint of Antonio Lafreri (the first bears the imprint of Antonio Salamanca). The work is described in his catalogue (no. 114) as "Roma moderna". The cartouche, bearing the title, shows an erasure which is present in all known examples.

According to Ehrle and later by Hulsen (1921), the plate was inherited by Claudio Duchetti and appears in the inventory of Giacomo Gherardi described as 'Roma anticha e moderna di tre fogli, grande". There could well have been a further printing, though no example exists.