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 and Notes, to condense Mr. Thomas' labours in such a way as would have been acceptable to the lamented scholar, and though he has made bold to explain some few textual difficulties, and to add some few references, he would fain hope that these additions have been made with modest caution--with the reverence due to the unstinted toil of a Bibliophile after Richard de Bury's own pattern. Yet once again Richard de Bury's Philobiblon, edited and translated into English by E. C. Thomas, is presented to new generations of book-lovers:--"LIBRORUM DILECTORIBUS." THE PHILOBIBLON NEWLY TRANSLATED PROLOGUE I That the treasure of wisdom is chiefly contained in books II The degree of affection that is properly due to books III What we are to think of the price in the buying of books IV The complaint of books against the clergy already promoted V The complaint of books against the possessioners VI The complaint of books against the mendicants VII The complaint of books against wars VIII Of the numerous opportunities we have had of collecting a store of books IX How, although we preferred the works of the ancients, we have not condemned the studies of the moderns X Of the gradual perfecting of books XI Why we have preferred books of liberal learning to books of law