Backer, Augustin de
BACKER, AUGUSTIN DE
Bibliographer; b. Antwerp, Belgium, July 18, 1809;d. Liège, Belgium, Dec. 1, 1873. He joined the jesuits (1835), went to Louvain to study theology (1840), and was ordained (1843). With the encouragement of his religious superiors, he remained in Louvain and continued the bibliography of writings by Jesuits published by Pedro de Ribadeneira in 1608 and 1613, by Philippe de Alegambe in 1643, and by Nathaniel Southwell in 1676. With the help of his brother Alois (1823–83) from 1850, he published Bibliothèque des écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus (7 v. 1853–61). With Charles Ruelens he edited Annales Plantiniennes depuis la fondation de l'imprimerie jusqu' à la mort de Christophe Plantin (1865–66). Aided by Carlos Sommervogel he published a second edition of his Bibliothèque (3 v. 1869–76), which contained 11,000 names of Jesuit writers, together with information about their lives, works, editions, translations, manuscripts, etc. After the death of the De Backer brothers, Sommervogel continued the work.
Bibliography: v. van tricht, La Bibliothèque des écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus et le P. Augustin De Backer (Louvain 1875). c. sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus 1:753–755. e. lamalle, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques 6:73–75. l. koch, Jesuiten-Lexikon: Die Gesellschaft Jesu einst und jetzt 1:145–146. b. schneider, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 2 1:1181–82. É. de moreau, Biographie nationale de Belgique, v.29 (Brussels 1956) 176–178.
[m. dierickx]