The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury1599

The Philobiblon is a collection of essays concerning the acquisition, preservation, and organization of books written by the mediaeval bibliophile Richard de Bury shortly before his death in 1345. Written in Latin, as was the custom of the day, it is separated into twenty chapters, each covering a different topic relating to book collecting.

There was a dispute as to whether de Bury was the actual author of the Philobiblon. The controversy began as a result of the bishop’s own biographer, Chambres, neglecting to mention the book at all in de Bury's biography. Many thought that de Bury’s chaplain, Robert Holkot, was the author and there was substantial evidence that this was the case. Today, however, most experts agree that the work is de Bury’s, chiefly due to the revealing and...