Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/347

 ii S.VIIL NOV. 1,1913.1 NOTES AND QUERIES.

341

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1913.

CONTENTS. No. 201.

NOTES : Bishop Richard of Bury's Library, 341 'The Freeman's Journal, 1 344 Wellington at Eton "Orra" A Book that belonged to Robert Burton Superstition concerning Hares The Great Storm of 1703 Numbers in History, 346 Superstition in the Twentieth Century The Earliest Mention of an Aerial Post, 347.

QUERIES : " Traps " Galiarbus, Duke of Arabia St. Ann and Wells, 347 Churchwardens' Accounts, Saffron Walden Authors of Quotations Wanted Anthony Marsh, Clockmaker Sir George Wright of Richmond The Model of Waterloo Name of Durham Jackson's Tower, 348 References Wanted Glasgow Cross Dr. Thomas Lawrence of Bath Duchess of Bolton The Royal Arms Land's End, Cornwall Songs in Lamb's Memoirs,' 349 'The Triumphs of Faith' "Castill Jordeyn " Mentelli, the Hungarian Diogenes Maids of Honour under the Stuarts Bowles and Watts Kerrie Arms " SS " Hamlett, Profile Artist " Patience " as a Surname "Libro pergameni," 350.

REPLIES: 'Memoirs of Sir J. Langham, Baronet,' 351 Heart- Burial in Niches in Church Walls, 352 "Jong- heer" White Horses, 353 Robert Andrews The Queen of Candy Highlanders at Quebec, 354 Webster's 'Duchess of Malfi ' Dhona St. Vedast's Clock, 355 " Gas " as a Street- Name Heraldic Quarterings " Tran- scendental " Lady Hamilton's Grave ' ' Trailbaston," 356 Simon de Montfort and Lewes Schoolboys in Thackeray Sir Samuel White Baker Colour of Liveries, 357 Rings with a Death's Head Paulet of Eddington Choir Balance: St. George's Chapel, Windsor W. Murdoch "Angelina Gushington," 358.

NOTES ON BOOKS: The 'New English Dictionary' " Bonn's Popular Library " ' The Edinburgh Review ' ' The Quarterly Review.'

^Notices to Correspondents.

BISHOP RICHARD OF BURY'S LIBRARY.

THE ' Philobiblon ' of this book -loving prelate, completed just fifteen months before his death in 1345, " stands," accord- ing to Dean Kitchin (' Seven Sages of Dur- ham,' p. 53), " still pre-eminent as the first English attempt at an account of libraries and books," and " was brought to light," states Burton (' The Book-Hunter,' p. 199), " from an older obscure edition by the scholar- printer Badius Ascensixis, and was the first fruit of his press when he set it up in Paris in the year 1499. An English translation of it was pub- lished in 1832."

The " older obscure edition " was possibly either that of Cologne in 1473 (the first edition), or that by Hust at Spires in 1483 ;

the " English translation " was, of course, by J. Bellingham Inglis ; but there were other issues by Jean Petit in 1500, by Thomas James at Oxford in 1599, at Leipzig in 1574, and by Cocheris at Paris in 1856. Further, an American edition of Inglis's version was issued in Albany in 1861, and E. C. Thomas edited and translated it in 1888 (see ' D.1SLB.'), and enumerates one or two additional editions.

My purpose here is not to discuss the very inconclusive arguments against De Bury's authorship, but to deal with a reference in the ' Philobiblon ' to a catalogue of its author's library, which, says Dean Kitchin (/.., pp. 57-9),

" apparently was never made. At the close of this most striking book we find three chapters on Bury's intention in making this great collection of MSS. It is one of the saddest mishaps that no catalogue or description of them exists ; it \yould have added much to our knowledge of the literature of the mediaeval world. The MSS. never went as a group of literary treasures to Oxford, though here and there one or other of them may have found a refuge in the capacious bosom of the Bodleian Library."

Of one lot, however, that formed part of De Bury's " great collection," the Dean himself supplies a brief but interesting inventory (p. 43). The Abbot of St. Alban's, covetous of a certain pre-eminence which was at the Bishop's disposal,

" approached Bury, then Clerk of the Privy Seal, with a handsome gift of MSS. from the monastic library. These were a Terence, a Virgil, a Quin- tilian, and a work by St. Jerome ; and he also persuaded the reluctant brethren to let Bury buy with fifty pieces of silver thirty from among their best MSS. One of these books, a work by John of Salisbury, is in the British Museum a fine large work, and on the first page of it we can read a note which gives the whole tale of its migration and return : ' This book wrote my lord Symon, Abbot of St. Alban's ; and it was afterwards sold to Richard of Bury, Bishop of Durham, and after his death bought back by Michael Mentmore, then Abbot, from the exe- cutors of that bishop in 1346.' "*

Thomas in his edition of the ' Philobiblon ' (1888), is as follows : " Hunc libruni venditum Domino Bichardo de Bury Episcopo Dunelmensi emit Michael Abbas Sancti* Albani ab executoribus praedicti Episcopi Anno Domini Millesimo CCCXLV circa purificationem Beatse Virginis." Either Mr. Thomas or the Dean has copied the date wrongly ; and the latter has certainly mis- transcribed the dates both of the day and year of the completion of the ' Philobiblon.' " The colophon," he says, " with which the book closes, tells us that it was not completed till the 14th of January in the year 1345 ; this was just there months before his death, which came on the 14th
 * The original " note," as given by E. C.