SOMMERVOGEL, CHARLES. - Jesuit, bibliographer, b. at Strasbourg on 8 Jan. 1834, d. at Paris on 11 May 1902.
Having entered the Society in 1853 and been ordained priest in 1866, he collaborated from 1867 with the periodical Études, of which he was director from 1871 to 1879. But even during his student years, following his strong inclination, he had always devoted himself to bibliographical research, greatly assisting the two brothers Augustin and Louis de Backer in the first two editions of their Bibliothèque des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus (7 vols., Liège 1853–61; 4 vols., ibid. 1869–76). Upon the death of the latter brother, Augustin, he was named their successor. He then set to work preparing, on a new plan and with greater completeness, the 3rd edition of the Bibliothèque; he spent a decade at Louvain gathering the greatest possible amount of material and by 1890 had begun the new publication in 9 vols.: Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus (Brussels–Paris 1890–1900). Volume X, already prepared, containing the analytical subject index, appeared posthumously under the care of Fr. P. Biard (Paris 1909), who later compiled Volume XI (ibid. 1932), containing the author index and a list of works on the Society of Jesus. The work was continued by Fr. I. Juambelz under the title Index bibliographicus S. J. (4 vols., Rome 1938, 40–41, 53). Other bibliographical works by S., likewise very useful, are: Tables méthodiques des mémoires de Trévoux (2 vols., Paris 1864–65); Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes publiés par la Compagnie de Jésus (2 vols., ibid. 1884); Moniteur bibliographique de la C. d. J., vols. XIII–XXIII (ibid. 1894–1901).