Wahrhaftige ausfurliche Beschreibung der beruhmten Ost-Indischen Kusten Malabar und Coromandel, als auch der Insel Zeylon. by BALDAEUS, Philippus (1632-1672)

Amsterdam: Johannes Janssonius Waesberge and Johannes von Someren, 1672. BALDAEUS, Philippus (1632-1672). Wahrhaftige ausfurliche Beschreibung der beruhmten Ost-Indischen Kusten Malabar und Coromandel, als auch der Insel Zeylon. Amsterdam: Johannes Janssonius Waesberge and Johannes von Someren, 1672. 3 parts in one volume. Folio (12 2/8 x 8 inches). Title-page printed in red and black (a bit browned). Additional engraved title-page, 2 engraved portraits and 34 double-page engraved plates and maps, 55 engraved illustrations in the text, some full-page (marginal worming at end). Contemporary vellum over paste-board, yapp fore-edges, title and date in manuscript on the spine (a bit rubbed). Provenance: 18th-century engraved bookplate with the initial "T" by Holtzmann, on the verso of the front free endpaper; with the bookseller's label of T.O. Weigel in Leipzig on the front paste-down; and the modern bookplate of William Davignon beneath it; with the posthumous book label of Wolfgang A. Herz, his sale, Christie's, 9th December, 2009, lot 116 First edition in German of this magnificently illustrated work on Southern India and Ceylon, by the Dutch Calvinist missionary, Philippus Baldaeus. It forms a history of Ceylon under the Portuguese, as well the later Dutch period of occupation, the final part describing the Hindu religion in considerable detail. Some facts were derived from the captured Jesuit seminary at Jafnapatam, and from the manuscript of the Calicut Jesuit, Giacomo Fenicio, while borrowings were also made from the work of another missionary, Abraham Roger. The original Dutch edition contained one extra plate (in part III) which, in this German edition, is used as a text illustration. Howgego B10; Landwehr VOC 557 (not calling for the "Vorrede an den Leser" (3p.) but present here). ..