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

University of Liège The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301 ...

Life

Vander Linden was born in

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

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

Ghent University Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...

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 contributio ...

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 depa ...

''
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 area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...

s in the medieval

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 ...

. 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 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'' ( French; "National Biography of Belgium") 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 ' ...

'', 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 (french: link=no, Occupation allemande, nl, Duitse bezetting) 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 ...

, 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 large village located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant, a short distance to the east of Leuven. The total area is 39.75 km² which gives a population density, using 2006 values, of 829 inhabitants per km². As ...

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 (french: Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, sometimes referred to as ') is the independent learned society of science and arts of the French Comm ...

, 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. They initially published their proceedings under the title ...

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, 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'', 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 Charles Terlinden (1878—1972) was a Belgian historian, professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, and papal chamberlain.Henri Haag, "Terlinden, Charles", ''Nouvelle Biographie Nationale''vol. 3(Brussels, 1994), 323-325. Life Terlinden was ...

, "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 University of Liège faculty Belgian medievalists Writers from Leuven