“HE LEARNED THE MOST SECRET RECESSES OF THEIR RELIGION…”: BALDAEUS’ 17TH-CENTURY TRAVELS TO SOUTH INDIA AND CEYLON, RICHLY ILLUSTRATED

(INDIA) (EAST INDIES) BALDAEUS, Philip. A True and Exact Description of the Most Celebrated East-India Coasts of Malabar and Coromandel; as also of the Isle of Ceylon… [London: Awnsham and John Churchill, 1732]. Folio (10-1/2 by 15-1/2 inches), contemporary full brown speckled calf rebacked, raised bands, red morocco spine label.

Second edition in English of Baldaeus’ account of his 17th-century travels in south India and Ceylon—one of the first Europeans to publish at length about the region—with engraved frontispiece, engraved title page, 37 copper-engraved views and maps (all but three double-page) and 50 engraved in-text vignettes. A very nice copy in contemporary calf covers.

Baldaeus was appointed a minister in Point de Galle in 1656. In 1658 he joined van Goens’ expedition from Negombo and remained in Jaffna after its surrender. In 1660 he sailed for Negapatam to reform the churches there, and the following year joined van Goens again on his expedition against the Portuguese forts on the Malabar coast. He returned to Jaffna in 1662, remaining three years before sailing home at the end of 1665. In the present work, first published posthumously in Dutch in 1672, he left behind a detailed account of the Tamil natives and their language, the Hindu religion, and the civil, religious and domestic condition of the countries through which he traveled and preached. The plates include views of Ahmedabad, Surat, Goa, Bombay, Cranganor, Cochin, Masulipatam, the catching of elephants, and a number of images of Hindu gods. The present work first appeared in English as part of the third volume of the 1704 first edition of Awnsham and John Churchill’s four-volume Collection of Voyages and Travels and again in the six-volume second edition issued in 1732 (thus the “Vol. III” at the foot of the engraved title page), although the present volume is often offered separately, as here. (Offsetting from the general title page, no longer present, can be seen on the verso of the engraved title page.). See Cox I, 10; Hill 1227 (1744 third edition). Armorial bookplate of Lord Washington.

Marginal soiling and creasing to title page only. Text generally very clean, with wide margins; plates uniformly crisp impressions. Excellent condition, attractively bound. Scarce.