It was paid for and made by Yom-Tob ben Levi Athias (the Portuguese marrano known before his return to Judaism as Alvaro de Vargas,[a] as typographer) and Abraham Usque (the Portuguese marrano Duarte Pinhel, as translator), and was dedicated to Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara.

Its language follows closely the Hebrew syntax rather than that of everyday Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino), as per the norm for "vulgar" translations of the Scriptures.

It is written entirely in the Latin alphabet, albeit with various diacritics suitable for expressing Ladino phonetics.

It was a basis for the 1569 translation of Casiodoro de Reina as shown in the "Amonestacion al Lector" found before the biblical text written by the translator himself wherein he writes the following: De la vieja Translacion Española del Viejo Testamento, impressa en Ferrara, nos auemos ayudado en semejantes necessidades mas que de ninguan otra que hasta aora ayamos visto, no tanto por auer ella siempre acertado mas que las otras en casos semejantes, quanto por darnos la natural y primera significacion de los vocablos Hebreos, y las differencias de los tiempos de los verbos, como estan en el mismo texto, en lo qual es obra digna de mayor estima (à juyzio de todos los que la entienden) que quantas hasta aora ay: y por esta tan singular ayuda, de laqual las otras translaciones no há gozado, esperamos que la nuestra por lo menos no será inferior à ninguna deellas.

Of the old Spanish translation of the Old Testament, published in Ferrara, we have availed ourselves hereof more than any other that we have seen thus far, not simply due to it always being accurate in such things, but rather because it gives us the natural and first meaning of Hebrew terms, and the differences between the tenses of the verbs as found in the same text; it is a work that is worthy of greater esteem (in the judgement of all those that understand it) than the many others found to this day: and by this exceptional aid, of which the other translations have not taken advantage, we hope that ours will not be considered inferior to any of them.