This volume's 283 engravings represent drawings primarily by artists of the Italian school. Many of the prints show the work of Annibale Carracci, and the collection also includes prints after drawings by Pietro Paolo Bonzi, Paul Bril, Domenico Campagnola, Lodovico Carracci, Correggio, Pietro da Cortona, Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, Guercino, Parmigianino, Nicolas Poussin, Giulio Romano, Andrea del Sarto, and Titian.

The German financier, art collector, and art dealer Everhard Jabach (1618–1695) commissioned the volume to reproduce his private collection of drawings. The prints are executed mainly by the French painter and printmaker Jean-Baptiste Corneille; other engravers include Michel Corneille, Jean-Baptiste Massé, Girolamo Muziano, Jean Pesne, and Jacques Rousseau.

Although Jabach commissioned the volume around 1666, it was not published until the 18th century.