Philip Blommaert
Encyclopedia
Philip Blommaert was a Flemish
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

 writer.

He earned his living as a private scholar and was as a friend and comrade of Hendrik Conscience
Hendrik Conscience
Henri "Hendrik" Conscience was a Belgian writer. He was a pioneer in writing in Dutch after the secession from the Netherlands in 1830 left Belgium a mostly French speaking country....

 with whom he promoted the use of Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

.

In 1834 he had poems written for the Flemish magazine Letteroefeningen in Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

, but with little success because of their rough language. Together with Jan Frans Willems
Jan Frans Willems
Jan Frans Willems , Flemish writer and father of the Flemish movement.Willems was born in the Belgian city of Boechout, while that was under French occupation. He started his career in the office of a notary in Antwerp....

 he worked for several Belgian magazines against the influence of the French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

, and in 1840 was one of the co-authors of the Vlaams petitionnement (E: Flemish petition) to support the Flemish cause in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

.

Of more importance was the publication of Dutch poems from the 12.-14. Century, such as Theophilus (Ghent 1836, 2. edition 1858), and Oudvlaemsche gedichten (1838–1851, 3 Volumes.), as well as a Dutch translation of the Nibelungenlied
Nibelungenlied
The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Kriemhild's revenge....

 in iambic verse.

His most famous work was the Aloude geschiedenis der Belgen of Nederduitschers (Ghent 1849), where he gave his opinion that the Low German
Low German
Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...

 areas are destined, despite their political divisions, to the fulfillment of a high cultural-historical idea.

Later years

In 1860 he became a member the of the Royal Belgian Academy
The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium
There are two Royal Academies for Science and the Arts in Belgium, corresponding to the two main languages of the country, Dutch and French . The Academies are located in the Palace of Academies in Brussels....

, where he took part in the work of the commission for the publication of a Flemish cultural monument. He had started working on the publication Jacob van Maerlant
Jacob van Maerlant
Jacob van Maerlant was the greatest Flemish poet of the thirteenth century and one of the most important Middle Dutch authors during the Middle Ages.-Biography:...

's just discovered poem Van Troyen when he died.
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