Baron Joseph Marie Bruno Constantin Kervyn de Lettenhove

Born on August 17, 1817, near Bruges, he became known as both a historian and a politician in nineteenth-century Belgium. He served in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives for Eeklo and was briefly minister of the interior in 1870–1871.

He is best remembered for his historical scholarship. A member of the Royal Academy of Belgium and the Royal Historical Commission, he edited and published important medieval texts and chronicles, especially relating to Flanders and the Burgundian period. Those editions made difficult primary sources far more accessible to later historians.

His career combined public service with deep archival work, giving his writing a strong sense of political and national history. He died in 1891, but his reputation has lasted through the lasting value of the sources he helped preserve and publish.