Herman Vander Linden (1868–1956) was a Belgian historian who was a professor at the

University of Liège The University of Liège (), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium founded in 1817 and based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French (language), French. History The university was foun ...

Life

Vander Linden was born in

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

on 27 April 1868 and was educated in the state secondary school there. He graduated

doctor of philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

from

Ghent University Ghent University (, abbreviated as UGent) is a Public university, public research university located in Ghent, in the East Flanders province of Belgium. Located in Flanders, Ghent University is the second largest Belgian university, consisting o ...

in 1891, with a thesis on the constitution of the medieval city of Leuven. His teachers were

Henri Pirenne Henri Pirenne (; 23 December 1862 – 24 October 1935) was a Belgian historian. A medievalist of Walloon descent, he wrote a multivolume history of Belgium in French and became a prominent public intellectual. Pirenne made a lasting contributi ...

and Paul Fredericq. He visited a number of German universities and studied at the Ecole des Chartes in Paris (1892-1894). Robert Demoulin, "Vander Linden, Herman", in ''

Nouvelle Biographie Nationale Nouvelle is a French word, the feminine form of "new". It may refer to: ;Places * Nouvelle, Quebec, a municipality in Quebec, Canada * Nouvelle-Église, a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department, France * Port-la-Nouvelle, a commune in the Aude dep ...

''
vol. 2
(Brussels, 1990), 360-362. In 1895 he obtained a special doctorate in historical sciences with a thesis on

merchant guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...

s in the medieval

Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...

. From October 1895 to October 1903 he taught history and geography in a state secondary school in Antwerp. In 1903 he was appointed to a lectureship in the University of Liège. His private library was destroyed in the

sack of Leuven The Sack of Leuven was the German assault on the Belgian town of Leuven (), part of the events collectively known as the Rape of Belgium, taking place during the First World War. Over the course of several days of pillaging and brutality, 248 peo ...

in 1914. He and his family became refugees in England, returning after the end of the German occupation of Belgium in World War I. Together with F. L. Ganshof he edited the 1926

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

for Henri Pirenne, ''Mélanges d'histoire offerts à Henri Pirenne par ses anciens élèves et ses amis à l'occasion de sa quarantième année d'enseignement à l'Université de Gand, 1886-1926''. Vander Linden retired from teaching in 1938. He was an active contributor to the ''

Biographie Nationale de Belgique The ''Biographie nationale de Belgique'' (; ) is a biographical dictionary of Belgium. It was published by the Royal Academy of Belgium in 44 volumes between 1866 and 1986. A continuation series, entitled the ''Nouvelle Biographie Nationale'' (, ...

'', and from 1935 to 1944 secretary of the committee responsible for publishing it. Under the

German occupation of Belgium during World War II The German occupation of Belgium (, ) during World War II began on 28 May 1940, when the Belgian army surrendered to German forces, and lasted until Belgium's liberation by the Western Allies between September 1944 and February 1945. It was ...

, one of his sons was arrested as a member of the Resistance, and died in a German concentration camp in 1942. Herman Vander Linden died in

Korbeek-Lo Korbeek-Lo () is a sub-municipality of the Municipalities of Belgium, municipality of Bierbeek located in the Flemish Brabant, province of Flemish Brabant, Flemish Region, Belgium. As a result of extensive local government boundary changes in ...

on 15 April 1956.

Honours

* Corresponding member of the

Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium The Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium ( , sometimes referred to as ' ) is the independent learned society of science and arts of the French Community of Belgium. One of Belgium's numerous academies, it is the French-speak ...

, 2 May 1921; full member 4 May 1931. * Deputy member of the

Commission royale d'Histoire The Commission royale d'Histoire (in French) or Koninklijke Commissie voor Geschiedenis (in Dutch) is the Belgian Royal Historical Commission. It was founded by royal decree on 22 July 1834. The Commission initially published their proceedings un ...

16 March 1922; full member 30 November 1931.

Publications

*''Histoire de la constitution de la ville de Louvain au moyen âge'' (Ghent, 1892). *''Les Gildes marchandes dans les Pays-Bas au moyen âge'' (Ghent, 1896). * with

Paul Hamelius Paul Hamelius or Hamélius (1868–1922) was a Belgian philologist who produced the two-volume Early English Text Society edition of the Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1919, 1923). Life Hamelius was born on 26 April 1868 in Ypres, West Flanders ...

, ''Anglo-Belgian Relations, Past and Present'' (London, 1918)Available Online
from the institutional repository of the University of Liège. *''Itinéraires de Marie de Bourgogne et de Maximilien d'Autriche, 1477-1482'' (

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, 1934). *''Itinéraires de Charles, duc de Bourgogne, Marguerite d'York et Marie de Bourgogne, 1467-1477'' (Brussels, 1936). *''Itinéraires de Philippe le Bon, duc de Bourgogne, 1419-1467, et de Charles, comte de Charolais, 1433-1467'' (Brussels, 1940). * "La Forêt charbonnière", ''

Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire ''Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire – Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Filologie en Geschiedenis'', abbreviated RBPH/BTFG or simply RBPH, is a scholarly journal in the fields of philology and history, published in Belgium since 1922. Since 1953 ...

'', vol. 2 (1923), pp. 203-214.

References

;Obituaries * Robert Demoulin, "Herman Vander Linden (1868-1956)", '' Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire'', vol. 34 (1956), pp. 968-970. * Charles Terlinden, "Eloge funèbre d'Herman Vander Linden", ''Bulletin de la Commission royale d'Histoire'', vol. 121 (1956), pp. 115-117. * V. Tourneur, "Hommage à Herman Vander Linden", ''Bulletin de l'Académie royale de Belgique, Classe des Lettres'', fifth series, vol. 42 (1956), p. 209. * F. Vercauteren, "Herman Vander Linden, 1868-1956", ''Bulletin de la Commission royale d'Histoire'', vol. 125 (1960), pp. 124-142. * F. Vercauteren, "Notice sur Herman Vander Linden, membre de l'Académie", ''Annuaire de l'Académie royale de Belgique'', vol. 128 (1962), pp. 35-53. {{DEFAULTSORT:Linden, Herman Vander 1868 births 1956 deaths Ghent University alumni Academic staff of the University of Liège Belgian medievalists Writers from Leuven