Single sheet, engraving. Scale [circa 1:75,000,000]. Mercator projection world map with two polar insets. the prime meridian is through the Azores. The sea area is decorated with ships and monsters. The highly decorative borders show at the top, the sun, moon and the five known planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn); at the bottom, the seven wonders of the world (the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Colossus at Rhodes, the Pyramids, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus at Caria, the temple of Diana, the Statue of Jupiter, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria); at the left , the elements, and at right, the seasons. This is the first state of this map. Later states include the name of the engraver, Josua van den Ende. The rhumb lines present on this map are reduced in the second state, and erased completely in states 3 and 4.

Blaeu's name as given in the title is his original patronym Janszoon.