The globe is close to one produced by Johannes Schöner at Nuremberg in 1523. The map includes a representation of the New World. It also shows the line demarcating the division of the Spanish and Portuguese colonial possessions that was established by the Pope in the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. The course of Magellan's circumnavigation of the world is also plotted.

Holbein has made some modifications in the prototype including spelling variations like "Pritannia" for "Britannia." The most significant modification is the inclusion of "Policy", Dinteville's seigneurial estate.