It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of Rare Book School emeritus faculty member Albert Derolez on 11 July 2026, at the age of 91.
Derolez began teaching for Rare Book School in 1987, after the San Francisco-based antiquarian bookseller Bernard M. Rosenthal drew the School to his attention. Derolez taught for RBS in New York City for five years and in Charlottesville almost every year from 1993 through 2014. His name and reputation were vital to extending the reach of RBS’s methods while unlocking the use of rare materials from the world’s foremost collections.
According to RBS Founding Director Terry Belanger, “Albert Derolez’s presence on the Rare Book School faculty lent more credibility and prestige to the School than that of any other person, and he was one of the best-liked personally as well. One of my favorite recollections is of a grateful student in Albert’s codicology class coming to me during the reception at the end of our five-day teaching week, virtually in tears. ‘I feel,’ she said, ‘as if Chopin has been teaching me scales.'”
Derolez held the Kenneth and Shirley Rendell Chair in Manuscript Studies at RBS, and taught several foundational courses: M-20: Introduction to Western Codicology (1987–2014), Introduction to Latin Paleography (1994), and M-40: Latin Paleography, 1100–1500 (1998–2007). He also taught a master class for RBS at Princeton in 1997.
“Professor Derolez was a world-leading scholar of medieval manuscripts,” said RBS Executive Director Michael F. Suarez, S.J. “It was a great coup for RBS that this patient and passionate teacher of palaeography and codicology came nearly every summer to Charlottesville. Very much an old-school, European gentleman, his kindness as much as his brilliance will be remembered by those who knew him.”
For many years, Derolez was Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at the library of the State University of Ghent. Besides his RBS offerings, he taught courses at the Vatican, the Free University of Brussels, and the University of California at Berkeley. He published The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books from the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century (2003), among other books, and was a Past President of the Comité international de paléographie latine.
Barbara Heritage, RBS’s Miranker Family Director of Collections, Exhibitions & Scholarly Initiatives, recalls how Derolez had the remarkable ability to date and localize European medieval manuscripts at sight—a skill that she and other RBS staff members and students witnessed on multiple occasions. He advised Heritage on interpreting a valuable late medieval Flemish Book of Hours donated to RBS by Eva-Maria and Hans Tausig in 2013 that contains six full-page miniature paintings made my Willem Vrelant or by either an assistant or collaborator in his circle.
“Albert walked me through the manuscript from cover to cover, leaf by leaf,” said Heritage. “His keen eye was able to detect details overlooked by other senior experts—for example, the traces of gauffering remaining on the edges of our manuscript’s gilt edges. His focus and command were deeply inspiring to me. It remains one of my most memorable and pedagogically significant experiences at RBS.”
Derolez offered generous guidance for RBS’s 2022 Building the Book exhibition at the Grolier Club and the accompanying book, co-curated and co-authored by Heritage and Ruth-Ellen St. Onge, respectively.
“He is deeply missed by those who had the good fortune to work with him,” Heritage said.