Hendrik Alfons De Vocht (1878–1962), sometimes Henry or Henri, was a pioneer in the academic study of

Renaissance Latin Renaissance Latin is a name given to the distinctive form of Literary Latin style developed during the European Renaissance of the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries, particularly by the Renaissance humanism movement. Ad fontes ''Ad fontes' ...

texts from the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

Life

De Vocht was born in

Turnhout Turnhout () is a Belgium, Belgian Municipalities in Belgium, municipality and city located in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of Antwerp (province), Antwerp. The municipality comprises only the city of Turnhout proper. ...

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, on 15 July 1878, the son of Joannes Baptista De Vocht and Anna Cornelia Oomen."Curriculum vitae", in ''Charisterium H. De Vocht, 1878–1978'', edited by J. IJsewijn and J. Roegiers (Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia II, Leuven, 1979), pp. 3-5. He went to secondary school in Turnhout and Herentals before entering the Major Seminary in Mechelen in 1897. He was ordained to the priesthood on 20 September 1902 and studied at the

Catholic University of Leuven University of Leuven or University of Louvain (french: Université de Louvain, link=no; nl, Universiteit Leuven, link=no) may refer to: * Old University of Leuven (1425–1797) * State University of Leuven (1817–1835) * Catholic University of ...

, graduating with a doctorate in Germanic Philology on 17 July 1906. Part of his doctoral research was published in 1908 under the title ''De invloed van Erasmus op de Engelsche Toonneelliteratuur in de XVIe en XVIIe eeuwen'' (Erasmus's influence on English drama of the 16th and 17th centuries). From 1912 he taught English literature at Leuven University, but spending much of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in Brussels, teaching English at an evening school in Jette and studying the archive of the

Old University of Leuven The Old University of Leuven (or of Louvain) is the name historians give to the university, or ''studium generale'', founded in Leuven, Brabant (then part of the Burgundian Netherlands, now part of Belgium), in 1425. The university was closed in ...

in the

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. In 1918 he was appointed a

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

in Leuven, and in 1921 a knight in the

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. On 26 December 1925 he was appointed to an honorary canonry of

Mechelen Cathedral St. Rumbold's Cathedral ( nl, Sint-Romboutskathedraal, french: Cathédrale Saint-Rombaut) is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels, Roman Catholic metropolitan archiepiscopal cathedral in Mechelen, Belgium, dedicated to Rumbold of ...

. In 1930 he undertook a study tour of libraries and archives in Germany, Scandinavia and Switzerland, and in 1931 in Poland. In 1932 he became an honorary doctor of the University of Tartu. He retired in 1950. In June 1958 he was appointed a

domestic prelate Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...

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. He died in Leuven on 17 July 1962 and was buried in the cemetery of Park Abbey. After his death, his extensive library of about 2,600 volumes was added to KU Leuven Libraries.

Publications

* ''An English Grammar for the Lower Forms'' (1907) * ''Deutsche Schulgrammatik'' (1910) * ''A Knack to Know an Honest Man 1596'' (1910) * ''Jasper Heywood and his Translations of Seneca's Troas, Thyestes and Hercules Furens'' (1913) * ''La langue, la littérature et les écrivains anglais'' (1917) * ''English Pronunciation'' (1919) * ''A Handbook of English Grammar for Belgian Students'' (1923) * ''Inventaire des archives de l'Université de Louvain 1426–1797 aux Archives Générales du Royaume à Bruxelles'' (1927) * ''John Ford's Dramatic Works'' (1927) * ''Litterae ad Craneveldium'' (1928) * ''The Earliest English Translations of Erasmus' Colloquia 1536–1566'' (1928) * ''The Earliest English Translations of Erasmus' Diuersoriam 1566'' (1928) * ''Monvmenta Hvmanistica Lovaniensia: Texts and Studies about Louvain Humanists in the First Half of the XVIth Century'' (1934) * ''Erasme. Sa vie et son oeuvre'' (1935) * ''Jerome de Busleyden, Founder of the Louvain Collegium Trilingue. His Life and Writings'' (1950) * ''History of the Foundation and the Rise of the Collegium Trilingue Lovaniense, 1517–1550'' (4 vols, 1951–1954)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Vocht, Hendrik 1878 births 1962 deaths