says nothing of a library at Oxford. Possibly the scheme was
never carried out. In the British Museum (Roy. 13 D. iv. 3) is a
large folio MS. of the works of John of Salisbury, which was one
of the books bought back from the Bishop's executors.

Unfortunately, the "special catalogue" of his books prepared by
Richard has not come down to us; but "from his own book and from
the books cited in the works of his friends and housemates, who
may reasonably be supposed to have drawn largely from the
bishop's collection, it would be possible to restore a
hypothetical but not improbable Bibliotheca Ricardi de Bury. The
difficulty would be with that contemporary literature, which they
would think below the dignity of quotation, but which we know the
Bishop collected."


Early Editions of the Philobiblon.
The book was first printed at Cologne in 1473, at Spires in 1483,
and at Paris in 1500. The first English edition appeared in
1598-9, edited by Thomas James, Bodley's first librarian. Other
editions appeared in Germany in 1610, 1614, 1674 and 1703; at
Paris in 1856; at Albany in 1861. The texts were, with the
exception of those issued in 1483 and 1599, based on the 1473
edition; though the French edition and translation of 1856,
prepared by M. Cocheris, claimed to be a critical version, it
left the text untouched, and merely gave the various readings of
the three Paris manuscripts at the foot of the pages; these
readings are moreover badly chosen, and the faults of the version
are further to be referred to the use of the ill- printed 1703
edition as copy.