Professor Henri Pirenne, rector of the University of Ghent and one of the leading European historians, who has served in this country as the first Belgian exchange professor to American universities, will visit the University next week to give a series of lectures on "The Origin of Cities in Western Europe."

These lectures, which will be open to the public without charge, will be delivered in French. They will take place at Emerson D. Harvard University, on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, October 25, 26, and 27, and on the following Monday, October 30, each lecture beginning at 4.30 in the afternoon.

Professor Pirenne is considered the most eminent historian in Belgium. He is the author of the standard history of Belgium in five volumes, as well as of other studies in the economic history of Western Europe in the Middle Ages. He has been president of the International Union of Academies since its organization in 1920. During the war he and his colleague. Professor Paul Frederieq, were deported to Germany and kept as prisoners because of their refusal to co-operate with the German reorganization of the University of Ghent.

The Belgian exchange professorship, of which Professor Pirenne is the first holder, was established by the G. R. B. Educational Foundation, an outgrowth of the work of the American Commission for Relief in Belgium carried on during the war by Mr. Hoover and his associates. The University is one of a number of American universities which Professor Pirenne will visit this autumn.