Bury (Richard de, Bishop of Durham) Philobiblon, 40 ff., the last blank, 31 lines, Gothic type, first initial supplied in brown ink, others in red, some initial spaces unfilled, early ink marginalia, fingerposts and underlining, small marginal repair to verso of first f., wormholes within text and to margins, more frequent at start and diminishing in number throughout, water-stained at head and foot, occasional spotting or finger-marking, new endpapers and pastedowns, contemporary pigskin-backed wooden boards, metal clasps, wormholes, repair to head of spine, [BMC II, 502; Goff R-192; HC 4150], small 4to, Speyer, Johann and Conrad Hist, [after 13 January, 1483].

⁂ The rare second edition of this classic treatise on bibliophily. It is considered the earliest work to treat in depth book collecting, the care and preservation of books and librarianship. De Bury highlighted the deplorable state of English libraries and championed the need to provide the necessary materials to advance learning. To this end he planned to found a library at Oxford, in which his own books would form the nucleus of the collection. Sadly, he died in great poverty on 14^th April, 1435 and his books were probably sent to the Benedictine Durham College, Oxford and thereafter divided between Duke Humphrey of Gloucester's library (now a constituent part of the Bodleian), Balliol College, Oxford and the Welsh antiquarian George Owen.

Typographically of note is that this is the only book printed by the Hist brothers to provide their names in full and to use this particular type.

This edition is rare at auction, with the last copy selling in 1995, lacking two leaves. The present copy last sold in May, 1984 for 74,000 Deutschmarks (c.$26,000).