Rich, Obadiah, an American bibliopole, was born in 1783. He published several works bearing on bibli- ography, but that for which lie was most distinguished
was the Bihliotheca A mericana Xova. He died Jan. 20, 1850. (W. P. S.)
Richard ok AuMAuir — whose real name was Fitz- Ridjdi, and whose liistdrical name is Armarhanus — was born in Devonshire, England, or, according to some, at Dundalk, in Ireland. He was educated at Oxford — first at University and then at Baliol College. He graduated as doctor of divinity, and in 1333 was com- missary-general of that university. His first Church promotion was to the chancellorship of the Church of Lincoln, July, 1331; he was next made archdeacon of Chester, in 1336; and dean of Lichfield, A()ril, 1337. At Oxford he opposed the affectation and irregularities of the mendicant friars. In 1347 he was advanced to I he archbishopric of Armagh, and still continued his oppo- sition to the friars, who became so incensed at his ex- posure of them that they had him cited before Innocent VI at Avignon, wliere he dcl'cndcd his opinions with great firmness, but was decided against by the jjope. He died at Avignon, Nov. 16, 1360, not without sus|)i- cion of poison. He was unquestionably a man of great talents and sound judgment. Perhaps his best pane- gyric is his being ranked, by some Catholic writers, among heretics. He is said by Bale to have translated the New Test., by Fox, the whole Bible, into Irish. His published works are, Defensio Curulorum ((drersus Fra- tres Mendicantes (Paris, 1496) : — Sermones Quuluor ud Crucem (Lond. 1612),
Richard ok Buky, an English prelate, was born at St. Edmundsbury, Suffolk, in 1281. His family name was Richard Am/erville, or Anf/arville. 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 aji- pointed bishop of Durham in 1333. He was made high chancellor of England in 1334; treasurer of Englantl 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, wliich he devised to a company of scholars at Oxford, and which were deposited in a hall once occupying the site of Diirliam (now Trinity) C<il- lege. For an estimate of his character, see Jortin, Re- marks on Eccles. Hist, ii, 394, His Philohihhm de A mure IAbron(m (Cologne, 1473, 4to) was translated into Eng- lish (Lond, 1832, 8vo); the American edition was col- lated and corrected, with notes, by Samuel Hand (Al- bany, 1861, 12mo and 8vo), See Allibone, Did. of Brit, and A mer. A uthors, s, v.
Richard of CiitENCESTER (so called from his birth- place, in Gloucestershire, England) — in Latin Ricardus Corinensis — was born in the first half of the 14th century'. Nothing is known of his family or circum- stances. In 1350 he entered the Benedictine monastery of St, Peter, Westminster (whence he is sometimes called the "Monk of Westminster"), and remained there the rest of his life. His leisure was devoted to the study of British and Anglo-Saxon history and antiquities. In the prosecution of these studies Richard is said to have visited numerous libraries and ecclesiastical establish- ments in England, and it is certain that in 1391 he ob- tained a license from his abbot to visit Rome. He died in 1401 or 1402. The work to which he owes his celeb- rity is his De Situ Britunrme, a treatise on the aiuicnt state of (ireat Britain. This work was brouglit to light b\' Dr. Charles J. Bertram, professor of English at Cojicn- hagen (1747), who sent a transcript of it, togetlier with a copy of the maj), to Dr. Stukely, the celebrated anti- quarian. From tliis transcript Dr. Stukely |)ul)lisl)ed an analysis of the work, with the itinerary (17.57, 4to; London, 1809) ■.—//isloria ab lleni/ista ud Annum 1348: — Tractatus super Si/mbolum Ma jus et Minns: — and Liber de Officiis Ecclesiusticis. — Chalmers, Biog. Diet. s. V, ; Chambers's Eucyclop. s. v.
Richard ok Dkvizks was a monk of the priory of St. Swithun, at Winchester, in the Pith centurj-, who
RICHARD
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RICHARD
wrote a history of the first years of the reign of Richard 1 — 1189-92: Chronkon Riciirdi Dirisieiisis de Rebus Ge.itis Ricardi Primi Re(jU A iiglite (Lond. 1838, 8vo) : — also Richard of Cirencester's Description of bntain; translated and edited by .1. Giles (Lond. 1841, 8vo) : — Chroniclis of the Crusades (184X, sm. 8vo). See Wright, J:i()i/. Bril. Lit. etc.; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. A utiiors, s. V.
Richard of Hexham was the first prior of his house hefiire 1138. He comiiiled a short history of the last two years of the reign of Henry I, and of the more remarkable events of that of Stephen, and a his- tory of the Cliurch of Hexham. Tainier also attributes to him — probably on slender foundation — a history of the reign of Henry II. See Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and A mer. A ut/iors, s. v. ; Chalmers, Bkiy. Diet. s. v.