Thomas Frognall Dibdin's Bibliomania; or Book-Madness is at once a history, taxonomy, and theatrical celebration of obsessive book collecting. First published in 1809 and substantially expanded in 1811, it combines dialogues, anecdotes, bibliographical notices, imagined cases, and literary quotation to portray the bibliomaniac as both comic eccentric and participant in a serious intellectual culture. Its learned miscellany ranges across early printing, illuminated manuscripts, rare editions, auctions, libraries, and the pleasures of textual possession. Written in an ornate, allusive style that deliberately mingles satire with antiquarian enthusiasm, the work belongs to the Romantic-era revival of medieval and Renaissance taste and to the emergence of bibliography as a specialized scholarly pursuit. Dibdin's subject is therefore not merely books, but the social identities, institutions, and passions formed around them. An Anglican clergyman, bibliographer, and indefatigable collector, Dibdin was deeply embedded in the early nineteenth-century world of private libraries, booksellers, auctions, and bibliophilic societies. His experience producing works such as Typographical Antiquities, together with his association with the Roxburghe Club and leading collectors, furnished the practical knowledge and comic observation that animate this volume. Bibliomania reflects both admiration for this expanding culture of connoisseurship and anxiety about its extravagances, especially the transformation of scholarship into status and acquisition. This book will reward readers interested in book history, collecting, print culture, literary sociability, and the formation of modern bibliographical knowledge. It is especially valuable for showing how nineteenth-century readers imagined their own relationship to the material book: critically, affectionately, and with self-conscious humor.

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Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776–1847) was an English bibliographer, born in Calcutta to a naval officer. Educated in England, he pursued a career in the church, but his passion for books and bibliographic scholarship outshone his religious vocation. A prominent figure in the bibliophilic and antiquarian circles of the early 19th century, Dibhin's influence extended through his writings and his involvement in literary societies. His seminal work, 'Bibliomania; or Book-Madness' (1809), illuminated the fervent obsession with book collecting in his era. In this treatise, Dibdin merges wit with erudition to portray the lengths to which collectors would go to acquire rare volumes, thus shaping scholarly discussion on the nature of book-collecting and the bibliophilic impulse. Dibdin's florid and often anecdotal style captures the spirit of his time while also documenting the eccentricities of the bibliomaniacs he encountered or read about. This work, alongside others such as 'Bibliographical Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany' (1821), has positioned Dibdin as a central figure in the study of book history and bibliography. His contributions have been pivotal in laying the groundwork for modern bibliographic studies. Dibdin's narratives are as much travelogues of personal scholarly adventure as they are studies in the history and passion for books. His legacy endures in the rich lineage of bibliographic scholarship and the enduring romantic image of the book collector.