Charles van Hulthem

Charles Joseph Emmanuel van Hulthem (17 April 1764 – 16 December 1832) was a bibliophile from the Low Countries whose collection of books provided the first kernel of the Royal Library of Belgium.

Charles was born in Ghent in the County of Flanders (Austrian Netherlands) on 17 April 1764, the youngest of the nine children of Joseph-François van Hulthem and Isabelle vander Beke.

In 1796 he was charged with selecting books and paintings from the religious houses that were being closed down, for the new public library and museum to be established in Saint Peter's Abbey, Ghent.

For three years he was a deputy of the Département de l'Escaut in the legislative Council of Five Hundred in Paris, returning to local government thereafter.

[3] During the Belgian Revolution of 1830, his house in Brussels was on the front lines and his considerable collection of books, medals and antiquities was severely damaged.