Holl's atlas was the first to incorporate the five 'modern maps' by Nicolaus Germanus (c.1420–c.1490) of Spain, France, Italy, the Holy Land, and Northern Europe. This map is also the first printed world map to extend the actual territory shown below the Tropic of Capricorn, as well as the earliest to show the northernmost reaches of the Atlantic Ocean, heralding the dawn of the age of exploration and the colonial world.

The world map is drawn using the homeotheric projection, which is ovoid, which Ptolemy considered superior but more difficult to construct. It stretches from the Western Atlantic across to Asia and covers 180 degrees of longitude. Generally, the world is shown as it was understood by the Alexandrine ancients, extending from Great Britain in the northwest, the Canary Islands in the west, mid-China in the east, and North Africa in the south. The Indian Ocean features a large island, Taprobana (Sri Lanka). A new addition of a rudimentary Scandinavia appears within an extension of the map above the neat-line. The whole globe is surrounded by a broad decorative border including twelve windheads. 

Africa is connected to Asia by a southern land bridge turning the Indian Ocean into a land-locked sea. Following classical geography, the Nile is shown rising from two great lakes fed from rivers in the 'Mountains of the Moon'. The outline of the western coast of Africa extending down towards the equator follows the Ptolemaic model, but with several additional place names and details deriving from fifteenth century Portuguese-sponsored explorations along the coast.

Interestingly, China is split between 'The Kingdom of Sina' (China) in the south, and further north, the 'Kingdom of Serica' (Silk). This division of China may come from the inability of the Greeks and Romans of the Classical period to correlate the differing accounts describing China.

Double-page woodcut map of the world, with contemporary hand-colour in full, including lapis lazuli.

This is one of the most celebrated early world maps, this Ptolemaic projection comes from 

’s 'Cosmographia', now better known as the Ulm Ptolemy. It drew from recent discoveries to create a fusion of the latest cartographic information with classical knowledge. Printed from a woodblock, this is the first map to be signed by its creator, 'Johanne Schnitzer, 

ter, of Armszheim'. Perhaps the most striking features of this map are the luminous pigments used in its original hand colouring. They include lapis lazuli, transported from Afghanistan, which rendered the rich blue shades. Such pigments were extremely expensive and likely contributed to Holl’s bankruptcy shortly after the atlas’s publication.

The world map was published in Holl’s 'Cosmographia' or the 'Ulm Ptolemy', which is one of the foundational pieces of Early Modern cartography. Holl’s atlas represents many 'firsts': it was the first redaction of the '

' to be printed outside Italy; the earliest atlas printed in Germany; the first to be illustrated with woodcuts rather than engravings; and the first to contain hand-coloured maps.

Coloured editions of Holl’s 'Cosmographia' atlas are particularly known for their lavish nature – which contributed to Holl’s eventual bankruptcy. They feature wonderfully rich blues of the seas made from lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone mined almost exclusively in Afghanistan. This resulting 'aquamarine' was the most expensive and prized pigment of the late-Medieval and early Renaissance periods. Despite being the first atlas published outside Italy, it was printed on the finest imported Italian paper with payment made in part by complete copies of the finished atlas.

The first woodcut map on a Ptolemaic projection, hand-coloured with lapis lazuli. It is also the first known map to be signed by the artist: ‘Insculptum est per Johane Schnitzer de Armszheim’, who left a further stamp of his individuality by inverting every capital 'N' on the map.

This is the first map to extend the territory shown below the Tropic of Capricorn, and the earliest printed map to show the northernmost reaches of the Atlantic Ocean. It was issued both individually and as part of 

’s 'Cosmographia', the first atlas printed outside Italy.

The Ulm Ptolemy World Map