Front matter

Transcriber's Notes

Thomas Frognall Dibdin's Bibliomania was originally published in 1809 and was re-issued in several editions, including one published by Chatto & Windus in 1876. This e-book was prepared from a reprint of the 1876 edition, published by Thoemmes Press and Kinokuniya Company Ltd. in 1997. Where the reprint was unclear, the transcriber consulted the actual 1876 edition. All color images were scanned from the 1876 edition.

The original contains numerous footnotes, denoted by numbers in the section entitled The Bibliomania, and by symbols in the remainder of the book. All of the footnotes are consecutively numbered in this e-book; footnotes within footnotes are lettered.

Some phrases are rendered in the original in blackletter; they are rendered in bold italic in this e-book.

This e-book contains passages in ancient Greek, which may not display properly in some browsers, depending on what fonts the reader has installed. Hover the mouse over the Greek to see a pop-up transliteration, e.g. βιβλος.

Spelling and typographical errors are retained as they appear in the original. They are underlined in red, with a popup Transcriber's Note containing the correct spelling. Minor punctuation and font errors have been corrected without note. Inconsistent diacriticals and hyphenation have been retained as they appear in the original.

There are frequent inconsistencies in the spelling of certain proper names. These have been retained as they appear in the original, for example:

Bibliothèque/Bibliothéque

Boccaccio/Bocaccio/Boccacio

De Foe/Defoe

Français/François

Loménie/Lomenie

Montfauçon/Montfaucon

Roxburgh/Roxburghe

Shakspeare/Shakespeare

Spenser/Spencer

Tewrdannckhs/Tewrdranckhs/Teurdanckhs (and other variations)

Vallière/Valliere

The original pagination used two sets of Roman numerals and two sets of Arabic numerals. To distinguish between them, in this e-book the Roman-numeral pages in the Indexes are preceded by "I." The Arabic-numeral pages in the section entitled The Bibliomania are preceded by "B." Some page numbers are skipped due to blank pages.

Page references, including those in the Indexes, do not distinguish between references appearing in the main text and those appearing in footnotes. Therefore, in this e-book, where the referenced matter does not appear in the main text on the linked page, it can be found in the nearest footnote.

Link to CONTENTS.

BIBLIOMANIA.

Libri quosdam ad Scientiam, quosdam ad insaniam, deduxêre. Geyler: Navis Stultifera: sign. B. iiij. rev.

T.F. DIBDIN, D.D.

Engraved by James Thomson from the Original Painting by T. Phillips, Esqr. R.A.

PUBLISHED BY THE PROPRIETORS (FOR THE NEW EDITION) OF THE REV. Dr. DIBDINS BIBLIOMANIA 1840.

[Enlarge]

BIBLIOMANIA;

OR

Book-Madness;

A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ROMANCE.

ILLUSTRATED WITH CUTS.

BY THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN, D.D.

New and improved Edition,

TO WHICH ARE ADDED

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS, AND A SUPPLEMENT INCLUDING A KEY TO THE ASSUMED CHARACTERS IN THE DRAMA.

London:

CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY.

MDCCCLXXVI.

[Enlarge]

TO

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THE EARL OF POWIS,

PRESIDENT OF

The Roxburgh Club,

THIS

NEW EDITION

OF

BIBLIOMANIA

IS

RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY

THE AUTHOR.