In 1832 there appeared an anonymous English translation, now
known to have been by J. B. Inglis; it followed the edition of
1473, with all its errors and inaccuracies.

Mr. E. C. Thomas' Text.--The first true text of the Philobiblon,
the result of a careful examination of twenty-eight MSS., and of
the various printed editions, appeared in the year 1888:

"The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, Treasurer
and Chancellor of Edward III, edited and translated by Ernest C.
Thomas, Barrister- at-law, late Scholar of Trinity College,
Oxford, and Librarian of the Oxford Union. London: Kegan Paul,
Trench, & Co."

For fifteen years the enthusiastic editor--an ideal
Bibliophile--had toiled at his labour of love, and his work was
on all sides received with the recognition due to his monumental
achievement. To the great loss of English learning, he did not
long survive the conclusion of his labours. The very limited
edition of the work was soon exhausted, and it is by the most
generous permission of his father, Mr. John Thomas, of Lower
Broughton, Manchester, that the translation--the only trustworthy
rendering of Richard de Bury's precious treatise--is now, for the
first time, made accessible to the larger book-loving public, and
fittingly inaugurates the present series of English classics.
The general Editor desires to express his best thanks to Mr.
John Thomas, as also to Messrs. Kegan Paul, for their kindness in
allowing him to avail himself of the materials included in the
1888 edition of the work. He has attempted, in the brief Preface