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A striking example of Waldseemuller's modern map of the Indian Ocean, India, Southeast Asia and contiguous regions, from the 1513 edition of Waldseemuller's Geographia.

Waldseemuller's modern map covers most of Southern Asia and is centered on the Indian Ocean, extending from Arabia and the Horn of Africa to the Malay Peninsula and northward toward China. The map is based largely upon the Cantino world map of 1502 and the Ruysch world map of 1507.

As noted by Greg McIntosh,

the depictions of the Old World, especially the seas, peninsulas, and placenames of the littoral of the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Bay of Bengal . . . are derived, not from multiple introductions of Portuguese cartography into Italian cartography, but by the introduction of that Old World image in a single event, that is, the arrival of the Cantino planisphere in Genoa in November 1502 and its subsequent dissemination through traditional manuscript copying processes, particularly via the highly influential copy made by Nicolay de Caverio. . . .

Regarding the transmission of placenames from the Cantino planisphere (1502) to the Caverio planisphere (c. 1503-04), and from the Caverio to Martin Waldseemüller, and from the Waldseemüller maps (1507-1516) to those of Schöner, Fries, Honter, and others (1515-1546), not only can we track, via placenames, inscriptions, and iconography, the maps-as-texts over a period of time, and not only can we see in each map the outcome or end result of a particular instance of the copying of large portions of manuscript text (placenames), but we can also watch some of the copying process by each individual mapmaker as it unfolds.

The map is considered by some (see Suarez, Early Mapping of Southeast Asia) to be the first modern map of Asia. Cartographically, the map draws heavily from the Portugese discoveries first documented on Cantino's map. The Waldseemüller map follows the Cantino delineation with an arrow-shaped Indian subcontinent and a Malay peninsula, which is greatly exaggerated and extends too far south.

Waldseemuller's map is the first to depict Sinus Magnus as the South China Sea. The small peninsula of 'Fulicandora', located directly above Sinus Magnus, represents the first earliest appearance of Indochina on a printed map.

Sri Lanka and the Indian subcontinent are relatively correct in their sizes. This map is among the earliest documents recording the Portugese explorations into the Indian Ocean, and is of primary importance in the mapping of the India and Southeast Asia.

The first modern atlas, prepared by Martin Waldseemuller using the translation of Mathias Ringmann. This is one of the most important editions of Ptolemy, containing many new regional maps. Twenty new maps based on contemporary knowledge were included by Waldseemuller, in addition to the traditional twenty-seven Ptolemaic maps derived from the 1482 Ulm edition.

Martin Waldseemuller and his associate Mathias Ringmann, prepared this edition of Ptolemy, partly at the expense of Duke Rene of Lorraine. It was brought to completion by Jacobus Eszler and Georgius Ubelin. The atlas contains the first map in an atlas entirely devoted to America (Tabula terre nove), often called the "Admiral's map" after Columbus. The map of Lotharingia (the first map of the Duchy of Lorrain), printed in black, red and olive, is one the earliest examples of color-printing. This edition was reprinted in 1520 using the same woodcut blocks.