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]
[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."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 1473edition; 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 1703edition 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."THE PHILOBIBLON NEWLY TRANSLATED
