Details
RICHARDUS DE BURY. Philobiblon. Speier: Johann and Conrad Hist [after 13 January 1483]. Chancery 4to, 193 x 139 mm. (7 5/8 x 5 1/2 in.), nineteenth-century English brown hard-grain morocco, gold-stamped crest with monogram and motto "Deus alit me" on upper cover, armorial shield on lower cover (of T. Wycliffe of Yorkshire?), smooth spine gilt-lettered, turn-ins gilt, g.e., rubbed, joints split, front flyleaf detached; lacking leaves 28 and 29, small interlinear repair to first leaf, filled wormholes at inner margins obscuring a word on fol. 1/7v and a few letters elsewhere, light staining at inner margins of a few leaves, minor marginal dampstain in quire 4. Collation: [1-58] (1/1r blank, 1/1v prefatory letter, 1/2r-5/7v text, 5/8 blank). 38 leaves (of 40, lacking fols. 4/4-5). 31 lines. Type: 1:87. Spaces for initials, unrubricated.
Second edition. Richard de Bury (1281-1345), Bishop of Durham and the founder of the library at Durham College, was a passionate collector and patron of learning rather than a scholar himself. "He possessed more books than all the other bishops put together... He deserves to rank among the first bibliophiles of England... His aim was to raise the intellectual standard and to provide the necessary material for students" (Dictionary of National Biography). In the Philobiblon he describes the formation of his own library, comments on the deplorable state of English libraries, and lays down guidelines for the preservation of books and manuscripts and rules for the management of libraries.
This is the only book printed by the brothers Hist to provide their names in full, in the prefatory letter, dated 13 January 1483. It is also the only known work printed in this 88 mm. typeface to identify the printer; the type was shared by another Speier printer, Georgius de Spira. HC (Add) 4150*; Oates 1129; Proctor 2400; BMC II, 502 (IA 8673); Goff R-192.
Provenance: T. Wycliffe?, supralibros as above -- Walter R. Gillette, bookplate -- Anonymous owner (sale, Parke-Bernet, 9-10 December 1952, lot 595).
Second edition. Richard de Bury (1281-1345), Bishop of Durham and the founder of the library at Durham College, was a passionate collector and patron of learning rather than a scholar himself. "He possessed more books than all the other bishops put together... He deserves to rank among the first bibliophiles of England... His aim was to raise the intellectual standard and to provide the necessary material for students" (Dictionary of National Biography). In the Philobiblon he describes the formation of his own library, comments on the deplorable state of English libraries, and lays down guidelines for the preservation of books and manuscripts and rules for the management of libraries.
This is the only book printed by the brothers Hist to provide their names in full, in the prefatory letter, dated 13 January 1483. It is also the only known work printed in this 88 mm. typeface to identify the printer; the type was shared by another Speier printer, Georgius de Spira. HC (Add) 4150*; Oates 1129; Proctor 2400; BMC II, 502 (IA 8673); Goff R-192.
Provenance: T. Wycliffe?, supralibros as above -- Walter R. Gillette, bookplate -- Anonymous owner (sale, Parke-Bernet, 9-10 December 1952, lot 595).