Richard Aungerville
Richard Aungerville , commonly known as Richard de Bury, was an
English writer, bibliphile, Benedictine
monk and
bishop. He was a patron of learning, and one of the first English collectors of books. He is chiefly remembered for his
Philobiblon, written to inculcate in the clergy the pursuit of learning and the love of books.
He was born in 1281 near
Bury St Edmunds,
Suffolk, the son of Sir
Richard Aungervyle, who was descended from one of
William the Conqueror's men. Aungervyle settled in
Leicestershire, and the family came into possession of the manor of Willoughby.
Encyclopedia
Richard Aungerville , commonly known as
Richard de Bury, was an
English writer, bibliphile, Benedictine
monk and
bishop. He was a patron of learning, and one of the first English collectors of books. He is chiefly remembered for his
Philobiblon, written to inculcate in the clergy the pursuit of learning and the love of books.
He was born in 1281 near
Bury St Edmunds,
Suffolk, the son of Sir
Richard Aungervyle, who was descended from one of
William the Conqueror's men. Aungervyle settled in
Leicestershire, and the family came into possession of the manor of Willoughby. He was educated by John de Willoughby, and after leaving the grammar school was sent to the
University of Oxford, where he studied
philosophy and
theology. He became a Benedictine monk at
Durham Cathedral. He was made tutor to the future King
Edward III whilst
Prince of Wales and, according to Thomas Frognall Dibdin, inspired the prince with his own love of books.
Somehow he became involved in the intrigues preceding the deposition of King
Edward II, and supplied
Queen Isabella and her lover, Roger Mortimer, in
Paris with money in 1325 from the revenues of Brienne, of which province he was treasurer. For some time he had to hide in Paris from the officers sent by Edward II to apprehend him. On the accession of Edward III his services were rewarded by rapid promotion. He was cofferer to the king, treasurer of the wardrobe and afterwards clerk of the privy seal. The king repeatedly recommended him to the
pope, and twice sent him, in 1330 and 1333, as ambassador to the papal court in exile at
Avignon. On the first of these visits he met a fellow bibliophile,
Petrarch, who records his impression of Aungerville as "not ignorant of literature and from his youth up curious beyond belief of hidden things." Petrarch asked him for information about
Thule, but Aungerville, who promised to reply when he was back at home among his books, never responded to repeated enquiries.
Pope John XXII, made him his principal
chaplain, and presented him with a rochet in earnest of the next vacant bishopric in England.
During his absence from England he was made dean of rolls. In September of the same year, he was made Bishop of Durham by the king, overruling the choice of the monks, who had elected and actually installed their sub-prior, Robert de Graynes. In February 1334 Aungerville was made lord treasurer, an appointment he exchanged later in year for that of lord chancellor. He resigned the following year, and, after making arrangements for the protection of his northern diocese from an expected attack by the
Scots, he proceeded in July 1336 to France to attempt a settlement of the claims in dispute between Edward and the French king. In the next year he served on three commissions for the defence of the northern counties. In June 1338 he was once again sent abroad on a peace mission, but within a month was waylaid by the approaching campaign.
Aungerville travelled to Coblenz and met
Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and in the next year was sent to England to raise money. This seems to have been his last visit to the continent. In 1340 and 1342 he again tried to negotiate peace with the Scots, but afterwards left public politics to care for his diocese and accumulate a library. He sent far and wide in search of manuscripts, rescuing many volumes from the charge of ignorant and neglectful monks. He may sometimes have brought undue pressure to bear on the owners, for it is recorded that an abbot of St Albans bribed him with four valuable books, and that Aungerville, who procured certain coveted privileges for the monastery, bought from him thirty-two other books for fifty pieces of silver, far less than their normal price. The record of his passion for books, his
PhilobiblonHe gives an account of the wearied efforts made by himself and his agents to collect books. He records his intention of founding a hall at Oxford, and in connection with it a library in which his books were to form the nucleus. He even details the dates to be observed for the lending and care of the books, and had already taken the preliminary steps for the foundation. The bishop died, however, in great poverty in 1345 at Bishops Auckland, and it seems likely that his collection was dispersed immediately after his death. Of it, the traditional account is that the books were sent to the Durham Benedictines at his foundation of Durham College, Oxford, and that on the dissolution of the foundation by
Henry VIII they were divided between Duke
Humphrey of Gloucester's library,
Balliol College, Oxford, and George Owen. Only two of the volumes are known to be in existence; one is a copy of John of Salisbury's works in the
British Museum, and the other some theological treatises by Anselm and others in the
Bodleian.
The chief authority for the bishop's life is William de Chambre, printed in Wharton's
Anglia Sacra, 1691, and in
Historiae conelmensis scriptores tres, Surtees Soc., 1839, who describes him as an amiable and excellent man, charitable in his diocese, and the liberal patron of many learned men, among these being Thomas Bradwardine, afterwards
Archbishop of Canterbury, Richard Fitzralph, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, the enemy of the mendicant orders, Walter Burley, who translated
Aristotle, John Mauduit the
astronomer, Robert Holkot and Richard de Kilvington. John Bale and Pits I mention other works of his,
Epistolae Familiares and
Orationes ad Principes. The opening words of the
Philobiblon and the
Epistolae as given by Bale represent those of the
Philobiblon and its prologue, of that he apparently made two books out of one treatise. It is possible that the
Orationes may represent a letter book of Richard de Bury's, entitled
Liber Epistolaris quondam dominiis cardi de Bury, Episcopi Dunelmensis, now in the possession of Lord Harlech.
This manuscript, the contents of which are fully catalogued in the
Fourth Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission , contains numerous letters from various popes, from the king, a correspondence dealing with the affairs of the university of Oxford, another with the province of
Gascony, beside some harangues and letters evidently meant as models to be used on various occasions. It has often been asserted that the
Philobiblon itself was not written by Richard de Bury at all, but by Robert Holkot. This assertion is supported by the fact that in seven of the extant manuscripts of
Philobiblon it is ascribed to Holkote in an introductory page, in these or slightly varying terms:
Incipit prologus in re philobiblon ricardi dunelmensis episcopi que libri composuit ag. The Paris manuscript has simply
Philobiblon olchoti anglici, and does not contain the usual concluding note of the date when the book was completed by Richard. As a great part of the charm of book lies in the unconscious record of the collector's own character, the establishment of Holkot's authorship would materially alter its value. A notice of Richard de Bury by his contemporary Adam Murimuth gives a less favourable account of him than does William de Chambre, asserting that he was only moderately learned, but desired to be regarded as a great scholar.
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