Richard of Bury

Richard Of Bury, an English prelate, was born at St. Edmundsbury, Suffolk, in 1281. His family name was Richard Angerville, or Angarville. He was educated at Oxford, and became tutor to prince Edward (afterwards Edward III). Having been sent on a mission to the pope, he formed a friendship with Petrarch, and was appointed bishop of Durham in 1333. He was made high chancellor of England in 1334; treasurer of England in 1336; co- ambassador to France twice in 1338. He died in 1345. Richard was a man of great erudition, for his day, and a liberal patron of learning, as well as a great collector of books, which he devised to a company of scholars at Oxford, and which were deposited in a hall once occupying the site of Durham (now Trinity) College. For an estimate of his character, see Jortin, Remarks on Eccles. Hist. 2, 394. His Philobiblon de Amore Librorum (Cologne, 1473, 4to) was translated into English (Lond. 1832, 8vo); the American edition was collated and corrected, with notes, by Samuel Hand (Albany, 1861, 12mo and 8vo). See Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.