This sublime example of sumptuous cartography seems to owe more to the art of illumination than to cartography. Although little is known for sure about the mapmaker, Fernão Vaz Dourardo, the unmistakable style of his entire production suggests he had one prototype atlas and created all his others by making additions or modifications to its strictly cartographic content.
Images by Vaz Dourado were soon found in the printed cartography of northern Europe such as, for example, the one in Linschoten’s work or the one that circulated in editions of Ortelius’s work. These images were used by everyone as the basis for new versions.