Upon Leland's authority, the Bodleian catalogue ascribes the work in question to Robertus Holcot. Watt, however (_Bibl. Brit._), seems to imagine R. de Bury and Holcot to be the same person. His words are (vol. i. c. 176 ):--"Bury, Richard. Dunelm., _alias_ Robertus Holcot, Bishop of Durham, and Chancellor and Treasurer of England, in the reign of Edward III.;" and again, under Holcot's name, "Holcot, Robert, _or_ Richard D. Bury."
The translator (J.B. Inglis) distinguishes in his Preface between these contemporary writers, and considers R. de Bury to be the undoubted author of this work passing under his name. In corroboration of his opinion, Mr. Inglis refers to the _Biographical and Retrospective Miscellany_; and, in order to prove that the work was finished in the author's lifetime, he produces the words:
"Quod opus (Philobiblon) Aucklandiæ in habitatione sua complevit, 24 die Januarii, anno a communis salutis origine 1344, ætatis suæ 58, et 11 suæ pontificatus."
"He died 14 April, 1345. Holcot died in 1349."
There appears to be some confusion about the _editions_, also, of the _Philobiblon_. There is an edition, 4to. Par., apud Gaspar. Philippum, 1500; also edit. _secund_. 4to. Oxoniæ, 1598; and it is printed in the _Philolog. Epist. ex Bibl. Melch. Goldasti_, ed. Lipsiæ, 1674. But prior to all these is the edition "printed at Cologne, 1473," from which the _translation_ is made, and which is described by Watt as "the editio princeps, and a work of uncommon rarity."
Query. Why does the Oxford edition of 1598 call itself "editio _secundo_?" If the Paris edit. of 1500 so far differ from that of 1473 as to entitle it to be considered a different work, had the second MS. passed through Holcot's hands?
The translation of Richard de Bury's _Philobiblon_, by Mr. Inglis, printed in 1832 for the late Mr. Rodd, is an unsatisfactory performance. The version is bald and spiritless, and some of the best passages of the original are rendered in language that does no justice to the author's meaning. His style is so peculiar, so allusive, and so full of metaphor and quotation, and the work is luminous with "the sparks of so many sciences," that a good translation is a desideratum.