Before his death in 1345, de Bury wrote a book of essays that he compiled in a work entitled "The Philobiblon". This was a word he created from the Greek meaning "love of books". Written in Latin, as was the custom of the day, it is separated into twenty chapters. These essays discuss book collecting, the care of books, the "advantages of the love of books", and the vagaries of wars and how they destroy books. In the book, De Bury states that "the same man cannot love both gold and books". In Chapter VII entitled "The Complaint of Books against Wars" de Bury writes: