Philippus Baldaeus

Philippus Baldaeus, born at Delft in 1632 and orphaned young, studied theology at Groningen and Leiden, took orders as a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, and sailed for Batavia in 1654. After Colombo fell to the Company in 1656 he was posted to Ceylon, served as an army chaplain through Mannar and Jaffna, and rose to Chief Predikant of Jaffna in 1658; he learned Tamil, founded some thirty churches and schools, and was sent home in 1665 after a quarrel with the government. He died at Geervliet about 1672, in his fortieth year.

His folio ‘Beschryving van het machtige Eyland Ceylon’, printed at Amsterdam in 1672 just after his death, appeared in three parts, carrying his portrait, many double-folio plates and text engravings: historical events, maps, plans, and views of towns, ports and forts, together with religious and ethnographic subjects. It became one of the most famous illustrated accounts of the island, and its plates were copied for a hundred years.