The very limited edition of the work was soon exhausted, and it is by the most generous permission of his father, Mr.John Thomas, of Lower Broughton, Manchester, that the translation--the only trustworthy rendering of Richard de Bury's precious treatise--is now, for the first time, made accessible to the larger book-loving public, and fittingly inaugurates the present series of English classics.

The general Editor desires to express his best thanks to Mr.John Thomas, as also to Messrs.

Kegan Paul, for their kindness in allowing him to avail himself of the materials included in the 1888 edition of the work.

He has attempted, in the brief Preface and Notes, to condense Mr.Thomas' labours in such a way as would have been acceptable to the lamented scholar, and though he has made bold to explain some few textual difficulties, and to add some few references, he would fain hope that these additions have been made with modest caution--with the reverence due to the unstinted toil of a Bibliophile after Richard de Bury's own pattern.

Yet once again Richard de Bury's Philobiblon, edited and translated into English by E.C.Thomas, is presented to new generations of book-lovers:--"LIBRORUM DILECTORIBUS." THE PHILOBIBLON NEWLY TRANSLATED.