Father Philippus Baldaeus is a name that history remembers as one of the earliest European missionaries in Sri Lanka, who went on to make an ethnological study of Tamils in the island. His travels in the subcontinent in the mid-1600s resulted in an important piece of work, titled 'A True and Exact Description of the most Celebrated East-India Coasts of Malabar and Coromandel; as also of the Isle of Ceylon'. The book is a rare find, and one, in fact, that the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum has had as part of its collection.