The engraving depicts the Greek muse of history seated, holding a pen in her right hand and a tablet and inkwell in her left, with two books at her feet.

[2][3][4] She is drawn, wrote historian Natalie Zemon Davis, "with a faint smile, perhaps ironic, certainly detached.

From this picture, it is only a short step to some Renaissance representations of History as a winged woman writing, her white garb signifying that she bears witness to truth as well as to renown.

[3][5] They read: Gesta ducum, Regumque canit Parnassia Cleo, Historicis mandatque modis, et fortia facta Heroum nec tempus edax, nec conterat [a]etas Inuidiosa cauet, longumque exten[d]it in Æuum Or, in an approximate translation into English, Cleo from Parnassus sings of the deeds of leaders and kings, And she molds them into the genre of history.

The series was printed in folio size, and was dedicated to Goltzius's friend and fellow engraver Jan Sadeler.