Jan Roegiers

Roegiers obtained his doctorate in 1979 with a dissertation on Leuven theologians and the Enlightenment.

He became a senior lecturer in the faculty of Arts and the faculty of Theology, chief archivist of the university (1975–2009), head of Leuven University Library (1981–1996), and curator of the university's art collection (1983–2009).^[4]

He was director of the Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique (1990-2009), chair of the editorial board of LIAS: Journal of Early Modern Intellectual Culture and its Sources (1993-2009), and chair of the editorial board of Trajecta (1998-2009).^[5] He was a moving influence on the early stages of the Short Title Catalogue Flanders (STCV).^[1]

Roegiers gave his valedictory lecture, on academic heritage and university history, on 19 February 2010. On the same occasion he was presented with a Festschrift celebrating his career, The Quintessence of Lives: Intellectual Biographies in the Low Countries presented to Jan Roegiers, edited by P. Delsaerdt, H. Schwall, D. Vanysacker, and J.-P. Delville (Brepols, 2010). His retirement was marked with a special exhibition in Leuven University's Central Library, Anima Academiae Bibliotheca, from 10 June to 25 August 2010.^[6]

Roegiers died on 12 July 2013 and was buried on 19 July in the Sint-Jan-de-Doperkerk in Leuven. The reading room of the university archive was named "Jan Roegiers reading room" in his memory.^[7] His rich library went to KU Leuven Libraries after his death.^[8]