Leiden University Libraries Digital Collections

De Vreese Correspondence

Letters of Willem Lodewijk de Vreese (1869-1938)

PK-F-P.319

De Vreese Correspondence

Willem Lodewijk de Vreese was born in Ghent on 18 January 1869. In 1887 he studied Dutch language and literature at Ghent University, where he graduated in July 1891 with a thesis on Boendale. In the period 1891-1895 De Vreese worked in Leiden as editor of the Dictionary of the Dutch Language (WNT) of De Vries and Te Winkel. In 1893 he was appointed member of the Society of Dutch Literature. In December 1895 he returned to Ghent, where he was appointed professor in January 1896. In the meantime he remained connected to the WNT as a member. In 1896 De Vreese became a corresponding member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Linguistics and Literature in Ghent and in 1902 he would be admitted as a working member. In 1907 he was elected as sub-manager and in 1908 as director. In 1911 De Vreese was appointed as head librarian of Ghent University Library. De Vreese, who was forced to move to the Netherlands during the First World War because of his Flemish activism, was appointed librarian of the Rotterdam Municipal Library in 1919. In 1934 he resigned. On January 19, 1938 he died in Voorschoten. Early in his career De Vreese started setting up the Bibliotheca Neerlandica Manuscripta (BNM). For this he visited hundreds of libraries, produced and collected thousands of manuscript descriptions, and provided a massive amount of codicological data.
The correspondence was purchased from the heirs in 1981. Subsequently, material was donated on various occasions. In addition, material from the BNM was repeatedly included in the Bibliotheca Publica Latina collection. A number of Middle Dutch and younger manuscripts that had ever been lent to him, but never returned, have been deposited in the library of the Society of Dutch Literature since 1985, in consultation with the heirs of De Vreese.