Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/349

 ii s. VIIL NOV. i, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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transmission of some, if not all, of De Bury's books to Durham College at Oxford, and in consequence it is pretty clear that its library did contain some of the said books, which, in spite of their dispersion, remained in Oxford. And as to Mr. Thomas's other, equally confident, opinion that the Bishop probably had no library at the time of his death to bequeath to Oxford, it is certain, from the catalogue alluded to in his ' Philo- biblon,' that he had one at least fifteen months before that event. Presumptio stat then that, until more positive evidence to the contrary than Mr. Thomas's negative assumption be forthcoming, Bishop de Bury was in actual possession of his unique library when he died. Had Mr. Thomas taken these facts into consideration in his study of the case, his otherwise excellent edition of De Bury's gre*at work would nofc have been marred as in my view it is by such offhand theories. De Bury's pro- visional, though unfulfilled legacy was in many respects curiously similar to that of Mr. Gladstone to St. DenioPs, Hawarden.

B. Balliol College. From Mr. F. H. James, Sub -Librarian, I received the sub- joined, dated 30 July :

" I have been making inquiries in various directions, but have only succeeded in eliciting information of a negative character. There seems to be no trace whatever of any manuscripts given by Richard of Bury being at present in Balliol Library. Coxe in his Catalogue of Oxford College Manuscripts does not mention him as being a donor of any of the existing MSS. of Balliol. The only MS. of which he would posi- tively seem to be the donor is a Laud Misc. MS. in the Bodleian, of which you already seem to have information."

This is authoritative, and for the time being endows the over-positive assertions of Camden, Burton, Edwards, and Creighton with a negative finality. But in spite of this rebuff and of Coxe's silence I am still sanguine enough to believe that there is more in the " traditional account " that many of De Bury's MSS. went south than Thomas will give it credit for : " Quod volumus facile credimus." Hence this fur- ther reply to my importunity.

C. British Museum. On 30 July also Mr. J. A. Herbert wrote from the B.M. Department of Manuscripts :

" Royal MS. 13 D. IV. (Works of John of Salisbury) belonged to Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham 1333-45. It was written for Simon, Abbot of St. Alban's 1167-83 ; and after Bury's death (viz., in Jan.-Feb., 1345/6) it was bought from his executors by Michael, Abbot of St. Alban's (1334-49). We have another MS. from his (Bury's) library, viz., Royal 89, i. (' Tabula

Originalium S. Scriptures,' excerpts from classical,

gatristic, and other writers, arranged alpha - etically under headings ' Abstinentia '-' Zelus ' ).. It was written for him, and was afterwards pre- sented to St. Alban's Abbey by Abbot Michael, who doubtless bought this along with 13 D. IV. from Bishop Bury's executors. (Cf. Walsingham, ' Gesta Abbatum Mon. S. Albani,' Rolls Series,, ii. 200)."

While this passage attests the location of the Simonean deposit in the B.M., it ad- vances (in MS. Hoyal 89, i.) my researches a stage further, and justifies my theory as to the southward migration of De Bury's library. Mr. Herbert's suggestion re Abbot Michael's purchase approaches probability ; but his date of Bishop de Bury's death (Jan. Feb., 1345/6) does not synchronize either in month or year with that of Dean Kitchin (14 April, 1345), although his months fit in better with Abbot Michael's purchase of the B.M. MS. (" circa purificationem Beatae Virginis," February, 1345).

D. Cathedral Library, Durham. Lastly,, Mr. E. V. Stocks wrote on 5 August from that library :

" You will find full information about Bishop de Bury's remains (literary) in Vol. 119 of the Surtees Society's publications, which Dean Kitchin edited in 1910. -This volume gathers together the fragments of his Register from, various sources and a few extracts from Lord Harlech's MS. at Brogyntyn, ' Liber Episto- laris quondam domini Ricardi de Bury ' ; but I believe there is nothing here now except the Register which Mr. Madan speaks of, and which is in the Treasury."

I have examined the Surtees volume referred to, and from its Preface cull the following, which will fitly complete this note by finally " placing " other MSS. of De Bury's library :

" His [De Bury's] fine collection of MSS., ' more than all the bishops of England possessed,' was scattered abroad. It has been stated repeatedly but wrongly that he gave or left them to the University of Oxford, or the Durham College there ; it is plain that they never found their way thither, whatever might have been his wishes. His Episcopal Register seems to have perished, for of the eleven and a half years of his Episcopate there survive only two fragments : the first part of it, a copy by Dr. Hunter of about three months (23rd January to 13th April, 1343) ; the other part is preserved in eight folio leaves, now bound up with Bishop Hat/field's Register in the Cathedral Library at Durham ; it runs from 12th September, . 1343, to 25th May, 1344. The grand collection of documents in the ' Regi- strum Palatinum Dunelmense ' contains also a further portion of Bury's Register. In all, about a year and a half of it survives. Bishop Godwin (' Cat. of Bishops,' 1601) says of Bury that he ' writ many things not yet" perished.' These, however, excepting the ' Philobiblon,' are now lost. The * Epistolae Familiares ' and the