Bibliomania; or Book-Madness: A Bibliographical RomanceDibdin, Thomas Frognall
History
Bibliomania; or Book-Madness: A Bibliographical Romance
Dibdin, Thomas Frognall
Bibliography; Bibliomania; Book collecting; Books -- Prices
gratified the curious in bibliography. In the former work
the books are described alphabetically, which perhaps is the
better plan: in the latter, they are differently arranged,
with an alphabetical index. The latter is perhaps the more
valuable of the two, although the former has long been a
great favourite with many; yet, from Freytag's own
confession, he was not then so knowing in books, and had not
inspected the whole of what he described. They are both
requisite to the collector; and their author, who was an
enthusiast in bibliography, ranks high in the literature of
his country. In the last place we may notice the
_Florilegium Historico-Criticum Librorum Rariorum, cui multa
simul scitu jucunda intersperguntur_, &c., of DANIEL GERDES;
first published at Groningen, in 1740; but afterwards in
1763, 8vo., at the same place, the third and best edition.
It was meant, in part, to supply the omission of some rare
books in Vogt: and under this title it was published in the
_Miscellaneae Groninganae_, vol. ii., and vol. iii. This work
of Gerdes should have a convenient place in every
bibliographical cabinet. I will close this attempt to supply
Lysander's omission of some very respectable names connected
with bibliography by exhorting the reader to seize hold of a
work (whenever it comes across him, which will be rarely)
entitled _Bibliotheca Librorum Rariorum Universalis_, by
JOHN JACOB BAUER, a bookseller at Nuremberg, and printed
there in 1770, 8vo., two vols.; with three additional
volumes by way of Supplement, 1774-1791, which latter are
usually bound in one. It is an alphabetical Dictionary, like
Vogt's and Fournier's, of what are called rare books. The
descriptions are compendious, and the references
respectable, and sometimes numerous. My copy of this scarce,
dear, and wretchedly-printed, work, which is as large and
clean as possible, and bound in pale Russia, with marbled
edges to the leaves--cost me 5_l._ 5_s._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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