Thomas Frognall Dibdin
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"In that useful section of labour (bibliography) we have, as a nation (Mr. Edwards remarks [in Libraries and Founders of Libraries], very little to boast of. Dibdin's writings have given a stimulus to more systematic effort than his own. And doubtless the pupils will, as usual, climb up on the shoulders of the master, and think themselves wonderfully tall fellows."--Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1877) by Ashbee |
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Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776 – 18 November 1847), English bibliographer best known for his book Bibliomania; or Book-Madness (1809).
Biography
Dibdin was orphaned at a young age. His father died in 1778 while returning to England and his mother died sometime during the following two years, and an elderly maternal aunt eventually assumed responsibility for Dibdin. He was educated at St John's College, Oxford, and studied for a time at Lincoln's Inn. After an unsuccessful attempt to obtain practice as a provincial counsel at Worcester, he was ordained a clergyman at the close of 1804, being appointed to a curacy at Kensington. It was not until 1823 that he received the living of Exning in Sussex. Soon afterwards he was appointed by Lord Liverpool to the rectory of St Mary's, Bryanston Square, which he held until his death.
The first of his numerous bibliographical works was his Introduction to the Knowledge of Editions of the Classics (1802), which brought him under the notice of the second Earl Spencer, to whom he owed much important aid in his bibliographical pursuits. The rich library at Althorp was thrown open to him; he spent much of his time in it, and in 1814–1815 published his Bibliotheca Spenceriana. As the library was not open to the general public, the information given in the Bibliotheca was found very useful, but since its author was unable even to read the characters in which the books he described were written, the work was marred by the errors which more or less characterize all his productions. This fault of inaccuracy however was less obtrusive in his series of playful, discursive works in the form of dialogues on his favourite subject, the first of which, Bibliomania; or Book-Madness (1809), was republished with large additions in 1811, and was very popular, passing through numerous editions.
To the same class belonged the Bibliographical Decameron, a larger work, which appeared in 1817. In 1810 he began the publication of a new and much extended edition of Ames's Typographical Antiquities. The first volume was a great success, but the publication was checked by the failure of the fourth volume, and was never completed. In 1818 Dibdin was commissioned by Earl Spencer to purchase books for him on the continent, an expedition described in his sumptuous Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany (1821).
In 1824 he made an ambitious venture in his Library Companion, or the Young Man's Guide and Old Man's Comfort in the Choice of a Library, intended to point out the best works in all departments of literature. His culture was not broad enough, however, to render him competent for the task, and the work was severely criticized. For some years Dibdin gave himself up chiefly to religious literature. He returned to bibliography in his Bibliophobia, or Remarks on the Present Depression in the State of Literature and the Book Trade (1832), and the same subject furnishes the main interest of his Reminiscences of a Literary Life (1836), and his Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in the Northern Counties of England and Scotland (1838).
Dibdin was the originator and vice-president, Earl Spencer being the president, of the Roxburghe Club, founded in 1812, the first of the numerous book clubs which have done such service to literature.
Linking in as of 2022
Althorp, Baskerville, Bibliomania (book), Bibliomania, Bibliophilia, Bibliophobia, Bolduanus, Book collecting, Charles Dibdin, Charles John Smith, Charles Lewis (bookbinder), Dibdin, Édouard Frère, Edward Blore, Edward Forster (writer), Edward Harwood, Edward Scriven, Edward Vernon Utterson, Enriqueta Augustina Rylands, Frances Mary Richardson Currer, George Nicol (bookseller), George Robert Lewis, George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, Goffar the Pict, Henry Kett, Henry Petrie (antiquary), Hours of Louis XII, Incunable, Isaac Gosset, Isabella Breviary, Isabella Mattocks, James Atkinson (surgeon), James Edwards (bookseller), James Fittler, James Mitan, James Thomson (engraver), John Adamson (antiquary), John Allde, John Lewis (antiquarian), John Major (publisher), John Rastell, John Tasker (sea captain), Joseph Ames (author), Joseph William Moss, List of art critics, Marko Pohlin, Mary Byfield, Michael Honywood, Michael Wodhull, Richard de Bury, Richard Heber, Robert Foulis (printer), Robert Hoblyn, Roxburghe Club, Samuel Freeman (engraver), Samuel Rawle, Socratic problem, St Mary's, Bryanston Square, Swallow Street, The Imprint (printing trade periodical), The Library (book), Thomas Dampier, Thomas De Quincey bibliography, Thomas Dibdin, Thomas Martin of Palgrave, Thomas Osborne (publisher), Victor E. Neuburg, Whittaker Magna Carta, William Bolland, William Bulmer (printer), William Crowe (poet), William Hamper, William Herbert (bibliographer), William Leman Rede, William Nelson Gardiner
