Karel de Visch

Carolus or Karel de Visch (15 August 159611 April 1666) was a Cistercian bibliographer, and prior of Ten Duinen Abbey.

Life De Visch was born in the village of Bulskamp, near Veurne (County of Flanders) on 15 August 1596, to Joris de Visch and Maria van den Hecke. The family belonged to the minor gentry. After studies at the Latin school in Veurne, he studied philosophy at the University of Douai.

In 1618 Visch became a novice of Ten Duinen Abbey. He made his monastic vows on 10 February 1619. From 1620 Visch compiled a new necrology of the abbey, his first historical work, and became familiar with the Spanish Cistercian historian Crisóstomo Henríquez, then residing in the Low Countries. From 1621 Visch returned to Douai to study theology under Francis Sylvius and George Colveneere, graduating Bachelor of Sacred Theology in 1625. Abbot Bernard Campmans appointed him librarian to the abbey, and in 1628 Visch completed a catalogue of the library's manuscripts. In 1644 he produced a revised and updated catalogue. Vita Reverendi in Christo Patris ac Domini, D. Adriani Cancellier, monasterii Dunensis, Ordinis Cisterciensis, quondam Abbatis (Bruges, Nicolaes Breyghel, 1655) – a biography of Adrianus Cancellier, Abbot of Ten Duinen 1610–1623