Jules de Glimes, a composer, singer, singing teacher and collector, aquired a beautiful music libary, comprising a large number of manuscripts of works by famous composers, inlcuding some hand-written ones, and numerous theoretical and historical works. His speciality was Italian vocal music from the 18th century (Galuppi, Traetta, Pacini, …). Fétis bought several hundred scores from this collection, and part of this collection came to the Conservatoire as a bequest.
Jules de Glimes trained with Charles-Louis Hanssens, followed by training in composition with François-Joseph Fétis. He was extremely talented, and was soon appointed accompanist to Fétis’ class. From 1837-1838, he was hired as a temporary replacement for the singing teacher at the Conservatoire, and in 1839 he became an adjunct professor of singing. But he left this job in 1840 to spend more time composing, while also giving private lessons in singing and accompaniment. He also taught singing to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, future husband of Queen Victoria, while the prince was staying in Brussels. In 1842, de Glimes left Brussels for London where he worked as a singing teacher in aristocratic families. After spending some time where he alternated between spending part of the year in Brussels and the other part in London, he eventually settled permanently in Brussels. De Glimes was a distinguished teacher, excellent acompanist and also a composer (romances, songs). Fétis said of these compositions that they showed "fine taste in ideas and in form, distinguished use of harmony and expression of the text". His works were published in Paris and Brussels. De Glimes also composed (and had performed) symphonic music, a ballet, and vocal music for three or four a capella voices.