Hendrik Désiré Louis 'Dis' Vervliet (

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, 31 December 1923 – August 2020) was a Belgian librarian and historian of books and printing.

Life

Vervliet was born into a working-class family and received a doctorate in classical philology in 1955. In his career, Vervliet worked as deputy director of the Museum Plantin-Moretus, professor and librarian of the

University of Antwerp The University of Antwerp () is a major Belgian university located in the city of Antwerp. The official abbreviation is ''UAntwerp''. The University of Antwerp has about 20,000 students, which makes it the third-largest university in Flanders. ...

and as professor of book and library history of the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

. In 1968 he became a member of the

Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts The Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (, , abbr. KVAB) is an independent learned society of science and arts of the Flemish Community in Belgium. It is one of Belgium's numerous academies and traces its origin to 1772 when ...

in the humanities class. His wife was Irma Regemortels (1928-2006), also a librarian.

Work

In his writing on the history of books, Vervliet was particularly known for his work on printing in the sixteenth century in France, Belgium and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, and the work of

Robert Granjon Robert Granjon (Paris, c. 1513 - Rome, 1590) was a French punchcutter, a designer and creator of metal type, and printer. He worked in Paris, Lyon, Antwerp, and Rome. He is best known for having introduced the typeface style Civilité, for his ...

. In 2013, Ton Croiset van Uchelen wrote that he "is now generally recognised as ''the'' authority on the sixteenth-century typefaces of Western Europe." After retiring, Vervliet published extensively, in his eighties completing publishing two large volumes on printing in the French renaissance. In his nineties he additionally completed a book on Granjon's floral ornaments, and then a book covering Granjon's entire career published at the age of 94. Returning to the topic of

civilité Civilité type () is a typeface introduced in 1557 by the French Punchcutting, punchcutter Robert Granjon. These characters imitate Blackletter#French cursiva, French cursiva letters of the Renaissance, specifically a formal style of secretary ha ...

types, which he had published on at the start of his career, at the time of his death he had recently published a paper extending his earlier research on the types of

Philippe Danfrie Philippe Danfrie the elder (about 1532 – 1606) was a designer and maker of mathematical instruments in metal and paper, as well as a type-cutter, engraver, minter of coins and medals, publisher and author. Much is known about Danfrie's life and a ...

and was working on another paper on Granjon's civilité types. A

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 ...

was published for Vervliet in 1988.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vervliet, Hendrik Désiré Louis 2020 deaths 1923 births Belgian librarians Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam Academic staff of the University of Antwerp 20th-century Belgian historians Historians of printing Members of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts 21st-century Belgian historians