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The National Archives of Belgium and the Archives and Libraries of Belgium celebrate André Vanrie

Date Added:28 June 2010

Last May 26th, the National Archives and the Archives and Libraries of Belgium celebrated the seventeenth anniversary of André Vanrie and handed him over a Festschrift (celebration publication).

  • F. Daelemans, M. Libert, E. Bodart, L. Honnoré and J. Houssiau (ed.), Image et imagination. Recueil d'articles offert à André Vanrie à l'occasion de son septantième anniversaire, Bruxelles, 2010, 2 vol. (Archives Bibliothèques de Belgique, special edition 91).

André Vanrie (born 1940) spent most of his career at the National Archives of Belgium after a few assignments at different museums of the City of Brussels. He holds a diploma in Medieval History from the Université libre de Bruxelles, where he also obtained a Licence (Master) in History of Arts and another one in Philology and Oriental Languages. André Vanrie has carried out all imaginable tasks of an archivist (collection, supervision of public archives, description of Ancien Regime and contemporary fonds, management of records offices, reading room service, organisation of exhibitions and colloquia, transcriptions, etc.) and has rounded off his career as Head of the Department Wallonia of the State Archives.

André Vanrie also distinguished himself within the framework of the non-profit organisation Archives et Bibliothèques de Belgique (Archives and Libraries of Belgium), of which he was treasurer for several years and responsible for the publication of the periodical and numerous other special editions.

At international level, André Vanrie was chief editor of Archivum from 1986 to 2000 and is currently still member of the editing committee of Comma. He is furthermore honorary member of ICA since 2000.

The two-volume publication handed over to him on May 26th at the end of a cordial and moving ceremony deals with the subject of images and imagination, testifying of his deep passion for among others history, arts, discoveries (of cultures and people) and observation (of works and nature). The books contain 31 articles penned by 34 authors from Austria, Belgium, Spain, France, United Kingdom and Senegal.