The Philobiblon
by Richard de Bury
Preface
The Author of the Book.
Richard de Bury (1281-1345), so called from being born
near Bury St. Edmunds, was the son of Sir Richard
Aungerville. He studied at Oxford; and was subsequently
chosen to be tutor to Prince Edward of Windsor, afterwards
Edward III. His loyalty to the cause of Queen Isabella and
the Prince involved him in danger. On the accession of his
pupil he was made successively Cofferer, Treasurer of the
Wardrobe, Archdeacon of Northampton, Prebendary of Lincoln,
Sarum, and Lichfield, Keeper of the Privy Purse, Ambassador
on two occasions to Pope John XXII, who appointed him a
chaplain of the papal chapel, Dean of Wells, and ultimately,
at the end of the year 1333, Bishop of Durham; the King and
Queen, the King of Scots, and all the magnates north of the
Trent, together with a multitude of nobles and many others,
were present at his enthronization. It is noteworthy that
during his stay at Avignon, probably in 1330, he made the
acquaintance of Petrarch, who has left us a brief account of
their intercourse. In 1332 Richard visited Cambridge, as one
of the King's commissioners, to inquire into the state of
the King's Scholars there, and perhaps then became a member
of the Gild of St. Mary--one of the two gilds which founded
Corpus Christi College.
In 1334 he became High Chancellor of England, and
Treasurer in 1336, resigning the former office in 1335, so
that he might help the King in dealing with affairs abroad
and in Scotland, and took a most distinguished part in
diplomatic negociations between England and France. In 1339
he was again in his bishopric. Thereafter his name occurs
often among those appointed to treat of peace with Philip of
France, and with Bruce of Scotland. It appears that he was
not in Parliament in 1344. Wasted by long sickness--longa
infirmitate decoctus--on the 14th of April, 1345,
Richard de Bury died at Auckland, and was buried in Durham
Cathedral.
Dominus Ricardus de Bury migravit ad Dominum.
The Bishop as Booklover.
According to the concluding note, the Philobiblon was
completed on the bishop's fifty-eighth birthday, the 24th of
January, 1345, so that even though weakened by illness,
Richard must have been actively engaged in his literary
efforts to the very end of his generous and noble life. His
enthusiastic devoted biographer Chambre1
gives a vivid account of the bishop's bookloving
propensities, supplementary to what can be gathered from the
Philobiblon itself. Iste summe delectabatur in multitudine
librorum; he had more books, as was commonly reported, than
all the other English bishops put together. He had a
separate library in each of his residences, and wherever he
was residing, so many books lay about his bed-chamber, that
it was hardly possible to stand or move without treading
upon them. All the time he could spare from business was
devoted either to religious offices or to his books. Every
day while at table he would have a book read to him, unless
some special guest were present, and afterwards would engage
in discussion on the subject of the reading. The haughty
Anthony Bec delighted in the appendages of royalty--to be
addressed by nobles kneeling, and to be waited on in his
presence-chamber and at his table by Knights bare-headed and
standing; but De Bury loved to surround himself with learned
scholars. Among these were such men as Thomas Bradwardine,
afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and author of the De
Causa Dei; Richard Fitzralph, afterwards Archbishop of
Armagh, and famous for his hostility to the mendicant
orders; Walter Burley, who dedicated to him a translation of
the Politics of Aristotle made at his suggestion; John
Mauduit, the astronomer; Robert Holkot, author of many
books; Richard de Kilvington; Richard Benworth, afterwards
Bishop of London; and Walter Seagrave, who became Dean of
Chichester."2
The Bishop's Books.
In the Philobiblon, Richard de Bury frankly and clearly
describes his means and method of collecting books. Anyhow
his object was clearly not selfish. The treatise contains
his rules for the library of the new College at
Oxford--Durham College (where Trinity College now
stands)--which he practically founded, though his successor,
Bishop Hatfield, carried the scheme into effect. It is
traditionally reported that Richard's books were sent, in
his lifetime or after his death, to the house of the Durham
Benedictines at Oxford, and there remained until the
dissolution of the College by Henry VIII., when they were
dispersed, some going into Duke Humphrey's (the University)
library, others to Balliol College, and the remainder
passing into the hands of Dr. George Owen, who purchased the
site of the dissolved College.3
Early Editions of the Philobiblon.
The book was first printed at Cologne in 1473, at Spires
in 1483, and at Paris in 1500. The first English edition
appeared in 1598-9, edited by Thomas James, Bodley's first
librarian. Other editions appeared in Germany in 1610, 1614,
1674 and 1703; at Paris in 1856; at Albany in 1861. The
texts were, with the exception of those issued in 1483 and
1599, based on the 1473 edition; though the French edition
and translation of 1856, prepared by M. Cocheris, claimed to
be a critical version, it left the text untouched, and
merely gave the various readings of the three Paris
manuscripts at the foot of the pages; these readings are
moreover badly chosen, and the faults of the version are
further to be referred to the use of the ill- printed 1703
edition as copy.
In 1832 there appeared an anonymous English translation,
now known to have been by J. B. Inglis; it followed the
edition of 1473, with all its errors and inaccuracies.
Mr. E. C. Thomas' Text.
--The first true text of the Philobiblon, the result of a
careful examination of twenty-eight MSS., and of the various
printed editions, appeared in the year 1888:
"The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham,
Treasurer and Chancellor of Edward III, edited and
translated by Ernest C. Thomas, Barrister- at-law, late
Scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, and Librarian of the
Oxford Union. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co."
For fifteen years the enthusiastic editor--an ideal
Bibliophile--had toiled at his labour of love, and his work
was on all sides received with the recognition due to his
monumental achievement. To the great loss of English
learning, he did not long survive the conclusion of his
labours. The very limited edition of the work was soon
exhausted, and it is by the most generous permission of his
father, Mr. John Thomas, of Lower Broughton, Manchester,
that the translation--the only trustworthy rendering of
Richard de Bury's precious treatise--is now, for the first
time, made accessible to the larger book-loving public, and
fittingly inaugurates the present series of English
classics. The general Editor desires to express his best
thanks to Mr. John Thomas, as also to Messrs. Kegan Paul,
for their kindness in allowing him to avail himself of the
materials included in the 1888 edition of the work. He has
attempted, in the brief Preface and Notes, to condense Mr.
Thomas' labours in such a way as would have been acceptable
to the lamented scholar, and though he has made bold to
explain some few textual difficulties, and to add some few
references, he would fain hope that these additions have
been made with modest caution--with the reverence due to the
unstinted toil of a Bibliophile after Richard de Bury's own
pattern. Yet once again Richard de Bury's
Philobiblon, edited and translated into English by E.
C. Thomas, is presented to new generations of
book-lovers:--
"LIBRORUM DILECTORIBUS."
1 Cp. Surtees Society's edition of
Scriptores Tres; also Wharton's Anglia Sacra.
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2 An unsuccessful attempt has been
made to transfer the authorship of the book to Robert
Holkot. Various theories have been advanced against
Richard's claims. It is noteworthy that his contemporary
Adam Murimuth disparages him as "mediocriter literatus,
volens tamen magnus clericus reputari," but such
disparagement must be taken with the utmost caution. The
really difficult fact to be accounted for is the omission on
the part of Chambre to mention the book.
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3 Mr. J. W. Clark puts the matter
as follows:--"Durham College, maintained by the Benedictines
of Durham, was supplied with books from the mother-house,
lists of which have been preserved; and subsequently a
library was built there to contain the collection bequeathed
in 1345 by Richard de Bury" (The Care of Books, p.
142). Mr. Thomas points out that De Bury's executors sold at
least some portion of his books; and, moreover, his
biographer says nothing of a library at Oxford. Possibly the
scheme was never carried out. In the British Museum (Roy. 13
D. iv. 3) is a large folio MS. of the works of John of
Salisbury, which was one of the books bought back from the
Bishop's executors.
Unfortunately, the "special catalogue" of
his books prepared by Richard has not come down to us; but
"from his own book and from the books cited in the works of
his friends and housemates, who may reasonably be supposed
to have drawn largely from the bishop's collection, it would
be possible to restore a hypothetical but not improbable
Bibliotheca Ricardi de Bury. The difficulty would be
with that contemporary literature, which they would think
below the dignity of quotation, but which we know the Bishop
collected." [back]
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by Richard de Bury
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