R.), lxxli.; this number is probably correct, but
owing to confusion between three Abbots of this name it is not
certainly right.
[2] Ibid., lxxiv.
[3] Robinson, 4-7.
But Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, is at once the
bibliomaniac's ideal and enigma (1287-1345). All accounts
agree in saying he collected a large number of books.
What became of them we do not know. In the
Philobiblon, of which he is the reputed author, he expressed
his intention of founding a hall at Oxford, and of leaving
his books to it. Durham College, however, was not completed
until thirty-six years after his death. Among the
Durham College documents is a catalogue of the books it
owned at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and only
the books sent to Oxford in 1315, and as many more are
mentioned, so that his large library did not go to the
college, but was probably dispersed." De Bury, like
Cobham, was a heavy debtor, and as he lay dying his
servants stole all his moveable goods and left him naked
on his bed save for an undershirt which a lackey had
thrown over him.[2] His executors, as we know, were glad
to resell to St.
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