RICHARD DE BURY

RICHARD DE BURY, a learned English statesman, was born at Bury St Edmunds in 1287, and was educated at Oxford. A bright career of preferment was early opened up before him. Scarcely had he finished his studies before he was appointed tutor to the Prince of Wales (afterwards Edward III.). The devoted manner in which this office was discharged was the means of accelerating his rise. No

sooner had his pupil succeeded to the throne than a shower of dignities, both civil and ecclesiastical, began to fall upon his head. He was made treasurer of the wardrobe and clerk of the privy seal. The revenues of many rich benefices were placed at his disposal. He was twice despatched to Rome with a splendid retinue as legate to Pope John XXII. At length he reached the climax of his good fortune by being appointed bishop of Durham in 1333, and treasurer and high chancellor of England in 1334. Richard adorned this high station by appearing as an enthusiastic and enlightened lover of books. In the course of his travels he had devoted both his time and his money to the collecting of literary works. It now became the congenial task of his declining years to complete his collection. Every library in the kingdom was examined in quest of new treatises. Those that could be bought he purchased. Those that could only be borrowed he caused to be copied by men who were kept in his palace expressly for that purpose. Thus did he procure a splendid assortment of books, which, at his death in 1345, he bequeathed to that hall at Oxford which is now called Trinity College. Richard de Bury left a treatise upon his own book-collecting labours, entitled Philobiblon. It was published at Cologne in 1473, at Spire in 1483, at Paris in 1500, and at Oxford in 1599. An English translation by Mr J. B. Inglis was published in 1832. (See English Cyclopaedia of Biography.)