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PHILIP BALDAEUS, A True and Exact Description of the Most Celebrated East-India Coasts of Malabar and Coromandel: As also of the Life of Ceylon, with all the adjacent Kingdom, London: Awnsham and John Churchill, 1704

(IIIrd part of IIIrd volume)
338 pages (pp. 563-901) including engraved frontispiece; engraved title page; 78 black and white engraved plates; 20 black and white engraved maps and plans (all but three double-page) and index pages
Contemporary half leather-bound with leather corners, spine with raised bands and red and green Morocco label
33 x 21 x 4 cm (each)

This account of the Dutch minister Philip Baldaeus' travels to Southern India and Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) includes richly engraved plates and maps of the places he documented. Baldaeus, who was appointed as a minister to Port de Galle in 1656, played an important role in reforming the churches in the region and was among the first Europeans to publish his writings and observations on their language, religion, and social and cultural. The plates illustrate some of the places where he travelled, including Gujarat and Bombay in western India, and Cochin and Masulipatam in the south. This book was first published posthumously in Dutch in 1672 and first appeared in English in 1704 as part of a larger set of volumes on travel.