"Idolatry, superstition, and outwarde vices are free and pure vnto them, which, vnder the pretence of a certaine fayth and inwarde puritie, boast that they knowe no sinne in the heart." (Fo. 87 b.)
Two features particularly distinguish them from other sectaries of the age: they professed obedience to the civil magistrate, whatever might be his religion; and they argued in favour of unlimited toleration both in regard to themselves and others.
C.H.
St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge.
TRANSLATION OF THE PHILOBIBLON.
L.S. (Vol. ii, p. 153.) inquires for a "translation of Robert de Bury's Philobiblon." An English version of this famous treatise by Richard, not Robert Aungerville (see, for the surname, Pits, p. 467.) de Bury, Bishop of Durham in 1333, was published by Mr. Rodd in the year 1832. The translator has not given his name, but he was Mr. John Bellingham Inglis, formerly a partner in the house of Inglis, Ellis, and Co. It is greatly to be desired that there should be a careful reprint of this most interesting work, and that the first edition of 1473 should be collated with MSS. The translation by Mr. Inglis might be revised, and made to accompany the Latin text. Let us hope, however, that his notes, if they be permitted again to appear, may be purified from scepticism and profaneness.
The claim of Holcot to be the author of this tract, should be well considered and decided upon; and the errors of the learned Fabricius (who had a manuscript copy in which the writer was styled "Muiegervile", instead of Aungerville), which have been repeated by Mansi, should be corrected. Dr. James, the first Bodleian librarian, fell into a strange mistake when he imagined that his inaccurate reprint at Oxford, in 1599, was the second edition of this treatise. It was in reality the fourth, having been preceded by the impressions, Colon. 1473; Spiræ, 1483; and Paris, 1500. So far as I remember, the editio princeps has not been specified by Gough. (Brit. Topog. ii. 121.)
R.G.
I find I can answer the Query of L.S. (Vol. ii., p. l53.), who asks, "Where can I procure a translation of Robert de Bury's Philobiblon?"