' 'You only, my books!' he
cries, 'are free and unfettered: you only can give to all who ask and
enfranchise all that serve you.' In his glowing periods they become
transfigured into the wells of living water, the fatness of the olive,
the sweetness of the vines of Engaddi; they seem to him like golden urns
in which the manna was stored, like the fruitful tree of life and the
four-fold river of Eden.
[Illustration: SEAL OF RICHARD DE BURY.]
Richard de Bury had more books than all the other bishops in England. He
set up several permanent libraries in his manor-houses and at his palace
in Auckland; the floor of his hall was always so strewed with manuscripts
that it was hard to approach his presence, and his bedroom so full of
books that one could not go in or out, or even stand still without
treading on them. He has told us many particulars about his methods of
collection. He had lived with scholars from his youth upwards; but it was
not until he became the King's friend, and almost a member of his family,
that he was able 'to hunt in the delightful coverts' of the clerical and
monastic libraries. As Chancellor he had great facilities for 'dragging
the books from their hiding-places'; 'a flying rumour had spread on all
sides that we longed for books, and especially for old ones, and that it
was easier to gain our favour by a manuscript than by gifts of coin.' As
he had the power of promoting and deposing whom he pleased, the 'crazy
quartos and tottering folios' came creeping in as gifts instead of the
ordinary fees and New Year's presents.
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