Page:Address on the opening of the Free Public Library of Ballarat East, on Friday, 1st. January, 1869.djvu/30

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(a) Richard de Bury, son of Sir Richard Angraville (or Aungervile), born at Bury St. Edmunds, in Suffolk, 1287, was educated at Oxford. To him was entrusted the education of the Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward III. He became Treasurer of Gascom, and, on the accession of his pupil to the throne, received the Stalls in the Cathedrals of Hereford, London, and Chichester, previously held by Gilbert de Middleton, was made Prebendary of Lincoln, Sarum, and Lichfield, appointed Cofferer to the King, Treasurer of the Wardrobe, and Keeper of the Privy Seal. While in possession of the latter office he visited Italy twice on special missions to Pope John XXII., who received him with great distinction, appointed him Chaplain to his Private Chapel, and, by a Bull, nominated him to the first See to fall vacant in England. Petrarch, whose acquaintance he made at Avignon, styled him "Virum ardentis ingenii." A.D. 1333, he became Bishop of Durham; in the following year, was made Chancellor. In June, A.D. 1335, he exchanged the Great Seal for the office of Treasurer. After having represented his Royal Master at Paris as Ambassador on three several occasions, and having visited Antwerp and Brabant, at each of which places he acquired by most liberal expenditure large numbers of rare and valuable books, he retired from public life, and, in his episcopal palace at Bishops Auckland, devoted himself to the pursuit of study, the multiplication of M.S.S., collecting books, and forming libraries at his different residences within his diocese. In his old age he wrote his celebrated work "The Philobiblon," though some persons ascribe it to his chaplain Holcot. It gives an insight into his knowledge of and love for books, and an account of the modes through which he became the possessor of some of his coveted volumes. "Thus the sacred vessels of science came," as he says, "into our power. Some being given, some sold, and not a few lent for a time." The propensity for borrowing, and indefinite extension of the period of the loan, has induced