Biography
Other info : Bibliography
Cornelis de Bie was a Brabant rederijker, poet, jurist and minor politician from Lier. He is the author of about 64 works, mostly comedies. He is known internationally today for his biographical sketches of Flemish and Dutch painters in his Het Gulden Cabinet der Edel Vry Schilderconst (the Golden Cabinet of the Honourable Free Art of Painting), first printed in 1662. He was the son of the painter Adriaan de Bie[1] and member of the Chamber of Rhetoric in Lier known as Den Groeyende Boom. After his study at the propedeuse faculty of Arts at the University of Leuven, he returned to Lier where he became a notary and bookseller. He was married twice: the first time to Elisabeth Smits who died in 1662 and the second time to Isabella Caelheyt who died in 1706. He had eight children, four from each wife. He died after 1712 and before 1715.
