In the late 1650s, the prolific Czech engraver Wenceslaus Hollar prepared plates for a Bible published in Cambridge by John Field. Field was the printer to the University of Cambridge, which had produced its first Bible in 1558 after being granted the privilege in a charter by Henry VIII in 1534. Determined to crack the monopoly on Bibles previously held by Londonbased publishers, the University Press took several steps to modernize their text, introducing, for example, the use of the letters u, v, and j, as well as occasional apostrophes. So influential did the Cambridge version of the King James Bible become that 447 of the 493 changes it made to the text later became standard.

Field's folio edition was the first Bible to be published after Charles I ratified Henry VIII's charter, and was one of his finest works. It included the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocrypha, and was illustrated with views, scenes, and portraits by a variety of engravers. Hollar was responsible for a number of these, including the ornate frontispiece and a number of double-page plates. Among these was a highly detailed plan of Jerusalem. The magnificent view encompasses the great city walls, the countless small and large buildings within it, and the surrounding hills. The river valley in the foreground is cultivated with trees and fields, while within the walls the city appears to be constructed according to a grid-like system, dominated by the Temple atop Mount Moriah at the centre of the view. Hollar included a numerical key in the upper right-hand corner of his plan to identify Jerusalem's various structures, spaces, and sites, which are further examined in an aerial inset plan in the opposite corner.

Oriented to the west, the inset plan show the entirety of the city as well as those parts of the surrounding area that contained sites and buildings of religious or historical importance. In fact, the number of sites shown outside the city walls exceeds that within, since only the most important monuments, structures, and places inside Jerusalem are shown, unobscured by the mass of nameless buildings that appeared on many contemporary views. Among the sites that do appear are the palace of Herod, the Hippodrome, and, of course, the Temple of Solomon, which naturally bears a close resemblance to the more detailed illustrations found in Villalpando's 'in Ezechielem Explanationes', which Hollar also replicated.

The relief and layout of the surrounding area are represented pictorially, as are its important locations, such as the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Camp of Pompey, which was set up during the siege of 63 BC. The Kidron Brook runs north to south along the eastern walls of the city, and further to the east, beyond the Mount of Olives, the neighbouring town of Bethany is represented as a modest collection of buildings. The small inset view is drawn after Juan Bautista Villalpando, whose work on Jerusalem influenced scholars and architects for centuries to come. For a full description of the original view, see item 606.