Beschreibung:

RICHARDUS DE BURY (1281-1345). Philobiblon . Cologne: [Printer of Augustinus, De fide ], 1473. Chancery half-sheet 4° (182 x 126mm). Collation: [1-6 8 ]. 48 leaves. 26 lines. Type: 100(105)G. 2- to 5-line initials supplied in red, red paragraph marks and capital strokes, underlining in red. (Small wormholes, affecting text slightly, in first two leaves, repaired in the first, light dampstains in upper outside corners in first quire and at the end, and in inner margin of last two leaves, blank verso of last leaf slightly soiled, yet in crisp condition.) English gold-tooled blue morocco over pasteboard, covers with fillets and corner ornaments, flat spine gilt-lettered, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, gilt edges, (ca.1830). Provenance : Adam Lüyscher, inscription on title dated 1515 ( Hunc librum de[di]t frater adam lüyscher ad hanc bibliotecam anno domini 1515 ); limpurgesche in a different, slightly later, hand; 18th-century pressmark "Class.a.8.Col.[-](?) altered to "Class.15 Col.6" FIRST EDITION. Richard de Bury, bishop of Durham, was a bibliophile and patron of learning. He is reputed to have possessed more books than all the other bishops of England combined, and he searched out manuscripts on his travels, in addition to using agents in Paris and Germany to obtain books. His Philobiblon is a work of humanist ideals, a treatise in praise of learning, which details the means of obtaining knowledge: through books. Richard tells how he collected his own library and sets out rules for libraries and the preservation of books. As founder of the library at Durham College, Oxford, Richard clearly wrote from personal experience. The Philobiblon 's use as a guide to library management may be seen in the early 16th-century inscription in this copy, which states it is given by brother Adam Lüyscher to the library of his religious house. Like the Dictys (see lot 15), the Philobiblon was printed in a type belonging to the group of early Cologne founts employed by anonymous presses. Although identification of the printer has been suggested as Goiswin Gops or Johann Schilling, Paul Needham has argued for retaining the eponymous appellation, because the type used in books assigned to this press differs in several respects from related types used by identifiable printers. (See "William Caxton and his Cologne Partners: an Enquiry based on Veldener's Cologne type" in Ars Impressoria, ...Festgabe für Severin Corsten , (1986) 103-131.) It has been speculated that the printer of the Philobiblon borrowed as his copy the manuscript of this text which was in the library of the Cologne Kreuzherren at the time. (See S. Corsten, Anfänge des Kölner Buchdrucks , (1955) 31.) The first quire exists in two states, which are distinct chiefly in their use of ligatures, but may also be distinguished by one minor textual variation in fo. 3r, line 14, which reads either "de librorum amore" or "de amore librorum." The Botfield copy agrees with the British Library copy IA. 3708 and reads "de librorum amore". H *4151; BMC I, 232 (IA. 3708-9); Goff R-191; VK 1021