Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid painting's canvas was almost certainly cut from the same bolt used for "Woman with a Lute". "Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid" is the first of the artist's experiments with centrifugal composition; where the focus is not only from the centre of the canvas. In addition, it is his third work in which the drama and dynamic is not centred on a single figure. The maid is shown standing in the mid-ground, behind her lady, with her hands crossed and waiting for the letter to be completed. The positions of their bodies indicate that the two women are disconnected.
Columbus's letter on the first voyage the Latin version were printed in various European cities—two in Basel, three in Paris, another two in Rome and another in Antwerp. Already by June 1493, the letter had been translated by a poet into Italian verse, and that version went through multiple editions in the next couple of years. A German translation appeared in 1497. The rapid dissemination of Columbus's letter was enabled by the printing press, a new invention that had established itself only recently. Columbus's letter (particularly the Latin edition) forged the initial public perception of the newly discovered lands. Indeed, until the discovery of Columbus's on-board