reforming religion and learning, Dury had proposed establishing in
London the first college for Jewish studies in the modern world. In this
proposal, he saw as a basic need the procurement of a collection of
Oriental books. Such a library was not just to store materials, but to
make them available and thereby increase knowledge. Hartlib, in a
pamphlet entitled _Considerations tending to the Happy Accomplishment of
England's Reformation in Church and State_, written in 1647 and
published in 1649, had proposed a central "Office of Addresse," an
information service dispensing spiritual and "bodily" information to all
who wished it. The holder of this office should, he said, correspond
with "Chiefe Library-Keepers of all places, whose proper employments
should bee to trade for the Advantages of Learning and Learned Men in
Books and MS[S] to whom he may apply himselfe to become beneficiall,
that such as Mind The End of their employment may reciprocate with him
in the way of Communication" (p. 49).

Events surrounding the overthrow and execution of Charles I led Dury to
become more personally involved in library matters. After the king fled
from London, the royal goods were subject to various proposals,
including selling or burning. These schemes of disposal extended to his
books and manuscripts, which were stored in St. James's Palace. John
Selden is credited with preventing the sale of the royal library.
Bulstrode Whitelocke was appointed keeper of the king's medals and
library, and on 28 October 1650 Dury was appointed his deputy. According
to Anthony à Wood, Dury "did the drudgery of the place."[6] The books
and manuscripts were in terrible disorder and disarray, and Dury
carefully reorganized them. As soon as he took over, Dury stopped any
efforts to sell the books and ordered that the new chapel, built
originally for the wedding of King Charles I, be turned into a library.
He immediately ordered the printing of the Septuagint copy of the Bible