English Convent
The English Convent in Bruges keeps an interesting collection of Gezelle documents. Gezelle had a connection to the English Convent.
The Verriest Family
A few months before his death, he was appointed director of the institution. Yet the collection does not date from that period, it ended up in the convent through the Verriest family.
Verriest Family
Handschrift van Kom e keer hier,
Rich Collection
That explains the diversity and richness of the collection: about forty original poetry autographs by Guido Gezelle, including well-known poems, letters from Guido Gezelle and other correspondence, notes, prints, etc. The original manuscripts mainly came from Dr. Gustaaf Verriest. They were friends and Gezelle wrote several poems for him.
Louise Verriest
There are also documents from the lawyer Adolf Verriest and his son Jozef. Adolf was a companion student of Gezelle at the Minor Seminary in Roeselare. Later Gezelle frequented the Adolf Verriest family house in Courtrai. Finally, there are a limited number of pieces by Hugo Verriest. Eventually the documents ended up with Gustaaf's daughter Louise Verriest, who left the family archives to sister Mary Margaret of the English Convent in 1977.
