page_title: Philippus Baldaeus
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Philippus Baldaeus / Life
caption_attribution_description: Voldersgracht, Delft
context_page_description: Philips Baelde or Father Philippus Baldaeus, was a Dutch minister. He went to Jaffna during the Dutch period in Ceylon with an invading Dutch force. As the second European after Abraham Rogerius he documented the life, language and culture of Tamil people, living in the north of the island. It is a great historical record, and it was immediately published in Dutch and German. English translation was published by Ceylon Government Railway.
  Dutch Minister, Author of Description of the East Indian Countries of Malabar, Coromandel, Ceylon, etc.
  Author of the first European document about the life, language and culture of the Tamil people in northern Ceylon.
  He wrote much about the religious, civil and domestic conditions of the places he visited and introduced his account of the Hindu mythology. He translated the Lord's Prayer of the Tamil language, and although it had mistakes, it was remarkable as the first treatise, printed in Europe of any Indian language. Baldaeus went back to Holland and preached until he died while still a young man.
context_section_description: Philips was the son of Jan Baelde (1610-1636) and Maria de Jonge (Junius). His father had a Flemish origin. His great-grandfather had left Ypres in 1584 after Alexander Farnese had occupied the city. His parents married in 1629. His father was a merchant and lived on Voldersgracht. His mother was the daughter of a local minister Isaac Junius. In 1630 his brother Jacob was born, who probably died in June 1636. In September and October his grandparents Junius died. His sister Maria was baptized on 16 November 1636. On the next day the mother died. Four days later his father was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk (Delft). So, when he was four years old Philips became an orphan.
caption: The Baelde family lived on Voldersgracht, where Johannes Vermeer, who was born in the same year, also grew up
exif: {}