[2][3] He is chiefly known for his editions of Greek philosophical works: Heracliti Ephesii Reliquiae (1877); Prisciani Lydi quae extant (edited for the Berlin Academy in the Supplementum Aristotelicum, 1886); Aristotle, Ethica Nicomachea (1890), De Arte Poetica (1898); Contributions to the Textual Criticism of the Nicomachean Ethics (1892).

[2] Bywater was associated with the Oxford Aristotelian Society from its inception in the early 1880s and remained its principal guiding force until his retirement in 1908.

His collection illustrates the history of classical learning and contains the names of both great and obscure European humanists of the early 16th and 17th centuries, with most of the books dating before 1650.

Around 50 books have MS marginalia by scholars, nearly 200 are autographed, and around 50 bear the arms of De Thou on the bindings.

The Bodleian Library also acquired some 64 volumes of MS material, including Bywater’s correspondence with eminent European scholars.