Dibdin's Bibliomania is an anthem to the printed book, a warning to
the unwary about the perils of obsessive book-collecting, and the
confessions of a rabid book-collector. As a casual glance at the
book will show, Dibdin's footnotes predominate over text, and it is
in the footnotes that the interest lies. They invite questions as
often as they answer them. What is the supposed similarity between
'Orator' Henley's library and Addison's memoranda for the
Spectator? What cutting words did Edward Gibbon write about Thomas
Hearne? Why should we not be surprised to find a book on American
history by a Spanish admiral in the library of the President of the
Royal Society? Who was Captain Cox who 'could talk as much without
book, as any Innholder betwixt Brentford and Bagshot'? Was Polydore
Vergil a plagiarist and John Bagford a biblioclast? What is
bloterature? Sometimes Dibdin tells us, sometimes he assumes we
know, and sometimes he chooses to tantalise us. The endnotes
provide some of the answers and will, it is hoped, lead readers to
discover new books and new writers, or, more often and more
pleasurably, old books and old writers. This book is based upon
Dibdin's first edition of 1809, to which have been added an
introduction and eighty-five pages of valuable endnotes, mostly
concerned with biographical details of the printers, librarians,
bookbinders, writers, book-collectors and Bibliomaniacs to whom
Dibdin refers. An appendix contains John Ferriar's Bibliomania, the
poem which prompted Dibdin's work. There are also a substantial
bibliography and index. This book will be invaluable to
bibliographers, librarians, cultural historians and all those
interested in books and book people. It gives a valuable insights
into antiquarianism in general and book-collecting in particular.
Dibdin's book ranges widely, from Juliana Barnes, Wynkyn de Worde,
Michael Maittaire and the St Albans Schoolmaster, to Thomas Hope,
Edward Rowe Mores, William Hunter and Horace Walpole. Many of his
footnotes (which take up far more of the book than the text)
contain details of the important book sales of the eighteenth and
early nineteenth century to tantalise the reader: Caxton's Boke of
Chivalrie selling for 11 shillings in 1756; Grenville's 1800
edition of Homer selling for an astounding GBP99 15s in 1804. Peter
Danckwerts studied Book Publishing at Oxford Polytechnic,
Bibliography & Textual Criticism at the University of Leeds,
Mathematics with the Open University, and Medieval Studies at
Birkbeck College, University of London. He is currently preparing
an edition of Byron's English Bards and Scotch Reviewers for Tiger
of the Stripe.
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