The claim of Holcot to be the author of this tract, should be well considered and decided upon; { 203} and the errors of the learned Fabricius (who had a manuscript copy in which the writer was styled "Muiegervile", instead of Aungerville), which have been repeated by Mansi, should be corrected. Dr. James, the first Bodleian librarian, fell into a strange mistake when he imagined that his inaccurate reprint at Oxford, in 1599, was the _second_ edition of this treatise. It was in reality the _fourth_, having been preceded by the impressions, Colon. 1473; Spiræ, 1483; and Paris, 1500. So far as I remember, the editio princeps has not been specified by Gough. (_Brit. Topog_. ii. 121.)
I find I can answer the Query of L.S. (Vol. ii., p. l53.), who asks, "Where can I procure a _translation_ of Robert de Bury's _Philobiblon_?"
A translation was published by Mr. Rodd, in 1832, of which the following is the title:--
"Philobiblon: a Treatise on the Love of Books, by Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, written in MCCCXLIV; and translated from the first Edition, MCCCCLXXIII, with some Collations. London: Printed for Thomas Rodd, 2 Great Newport Street, Leicester Square, 1832."
This translation is a small 8vo. volume, of which there is a copy in the Douce collection in the Bodleian; at the beginning of which copy, on a fly-leaf, the words, "J.B. Inglis to his friend F. Douce, Esq.," are written; and opposite, on the inside of the cover, there is written in pencil, apparently in Douce's own hand, "I had read the MS. of this work before it was printed."
There appears to have existed some difference of opinion with respect to the authorship of the _Philobiblon_. Leland, in his _Itinerary_, ed. 8vo. Oxford 1744, vol. iii. pp. 77, 78, sub loc. _Saresbyri_, says,--
"Ex tabella in Sacello S. Mariæ. Orate pro anima Ricbardi Poure, quondam Sarum Episcopi." ...
"Qui quidem Richardus Episcopus postea translatus fuit ad Episcopatum Dunelmensem ... Incipit Prologus in Philobiblon Richardi Dunelmensis Episcopi, _quem librum compilavit Robertus Holcot_ de Ord. Prædicatorum _sub nomine dicti Episcopi_."
Still, however, in the appendix to vol. iv. of the _Itinerary_, p. 164., it is said:--
"Richardus de _Bury_, alias _Angravyle_ dictus, episc. Dunelm., scripsit Philobiblon."