Wednesday 3 April 2024

Φιλόβιβλος

Lege, perlege, volve, revolve, si vacat, si placet, otiumque sit; invenies (audebo dicere expertus enim loquor) tui similem φιλόβιβλον, φιλακαδήμικον, φιλόσπουδαιον, φιλόσοφον.

If you have a  free moment, if it pleases you, if there is time for leisure: read, read through to the end, mull over, and mull over again; you will discover [in this book] (I dare to say, for I speak as one with experience), a book-lover, an academics-lover, a study-lover, and a wisdom-lover like yourself.
From the letter of Thomas James, editor of Richard de Bury’s Philobiblon, dated 1599 and inscribed in the copy of that work formerly belonging to Lord Lumley and now held in the British Museum Library.

Philobiblon Society: Bibliographical and Historical Miscellanies, 1 (1854), pp. 1-5 (p. 4). My translation.