Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$44.91 + shipping
Description: 8vo, pp. [iv], 72, [1] epilogue; disbound. First edition. First acted at the Lyceum in the Strand, by the Drury Lane company whilst in exile from their theatre - it had burnt down in the celebrated fire of 1809. The epilogue is by Thomas John Dibdin. The book was printed, incidentally, by John McCreery, formerly of Liverpool, who was himself something of a poet: in the year he printed this book he also printed Thomas Frognall Dibdin's poem Bibliomania.
Seller: Christopher Edwards ABA ILAB, Henley-on-Thames, OXON, United Kingdom
Price: US$210.92 + shipping
Description: REBOUND- different text from much expanded 1811 edition, octavo, brown heavy boards, gilt lettering to spine, iv + 87pp, VG (light bruising & scuffing to spine & board extrems, moderate tanning to page edges, light tanning & foxing to eps with moderate pencil annotations to front eps, age appropriate foxing/discolouration to pages)
Seller: Hard to Find Books NZ (Internet) Ltd., Dunedin, OTAGO, New Zealand
Dibdin, Thomas Frognall. The Bibliomania or Book Madness. Longman Hurst Rees and Orme, London, 1809.
Price: US$400.00 + shipping
Description: front cover detached, but present, leather on the spine about 1/3 missing, text tight
Seller: Robert S. Brooks, Bookseller, Bristol, WI, U.S.A.
Price: US$513.31 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Hardback, half-morocco over marbled paper covered boards. Aeg. 22 x 14.5cm. Vignette title in red and black. iv, 87pp, [1] ads. Portrairt frontis. First edition. Red morocco gilt bookplate of W. A. Foyle of Beeleigh Abbey to upper pastedown. A closed tear to a couple of early leaves, nicely restored. Slightest wear to extremities. A very good copy.
Seller: Besleys Books PBFA, Diss, United Kingdom
DIBDIN, Thomas Frognall. Bibliomania, or, book-madness. Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, London, 1809.
Price: US$600.00 + shipping
Description: Title in black with red. Half calf over linen; preliminary and last leaves foxed, interior and text in generally excellent condition. First edition of this popular book which passed through many later editions. This work was inspired by another, published under the same title, by John Ferrier, M.D. Ferrier had extensive medical experience and did himself suffer from the disease which he named Biblio-Mania. His work, in verse, begins: What wild desires, what restless torments seize The hapless man, who feels the book-disease. Dibdin was the originator and vice-president of the Roxburghe Club, founded in 1812, the first of the numerous book clubs which have done such service to literature.
Seller: B & L Rootenberg Rare Books, ABAA, Sherman Oaks, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$950.00 + shipping
Description: 8vo; 1st edition. Period marbled boards, 8vo, iv + 87+ [1]; 22 cm. Title printed in red and black, title with the famous woodcut vignette of the "Foolish Bibliophile" from Sebastian Brandt's Ship of Fools (1494). With Erratum on page 87, as well as bibliographical references and index. First Edition of Dibdin's "first full flowering love affair with books." An important work written in dialogue and conversations of well-known book collectors of the author's acquaintance with many footnotes describing book collectors' rare items and the prices for which they were sold, taken from the original sale catalog. It went through many editions; Dibdin was the founder and vice-president of the Roxburghe Club, a book collector's organization, founded in 1812, a few years after publication of this popular and often re-printed work. Jackson 16; Lowndes II, 639-40; Windle & Pippin A11a.Contents include: I. History of; or an account of eminent book collectors who have fallen victims to it. -- II. Symptoms of; being a passion for 1. Large paper copies. 2. Uncut copies. 3. Illustrated copies. 4. Unique copies. 5. Vellum copies. 6. First edition. 7. True editions. 8. Black letter editions. -- III. Cure of: 1. Reading useful works. 2. Reprints of scarce and valuable works. 3. Editing our best ancient writers. 4. Erection of public institutions. 5. Encouragement of bibliography. The Library of Congress keeps their copy in their Lessing J. Rosenwald Reference Collection. A copy sold for over $1200 at auction in 2021. SUBJECT(S): Bibliomania. Bibliography. Books -- Prices. Book collecting. Bibliomanie. Bibliographie. Livres -- Prix. Bibliophilie. Bibliographies. Color printing (Printing). OCLC: 959510667 Without the 16 pages of publisher's advertisements found in some copies. Ex-library with small period stamp to title and blank reverse, occasional very light spotting. Lacks lower outer corner of front board, otherwise Very Good attractive binding, Very Good Condition. (BIBLIOG-37-2).
Seller: Dan Wyman Books, LLC, Brooklyn, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Description: Pagination: [4], 87p. Fine binding modern quarter calf over marbled boards gilt rules at spine ends and gilt black title label. New endpapers. Title page and B1 printed in black and red. Outer margin textblock edges uncut (not uncommon) .A2 & B1 with tiny repair to outer margin edge no affect. Some minor foxing. Presentation inscription from author removed from original front pastedown and adhered to new pastedown. A nice copy of a rare first edition signed by the author. ?Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776-1847) English bibliographer who helped to stimulate interest in bibliography by his own enthusiastic though often inaccurate books, by his share in founding the first English private publishing society, and by his beautifully produced catalog of Lord Spencer?s library (which collection later became the nucleus of the John Rylands Library, Manchester). His father, the captain of a sailing ship, was the inspiration for his uncle Charles Dibdin?s song ?Tom Bowling.? Both of Dibdin?s parents died on the passage from India to England in 1780, and at age four he became the ward of his mother?s younger brother, Charles Compton. Educated at St. John?s College, Oxford, Dibdin began a legal career but took holy orders in 1805. His Introduction to the knowledge of rare and valuable editions of the Greek and Latin Classics (1802) attracted the notice of Lord Spencer, through whose patronage Dibdin obtained a clerical appointment in London. His Bibliotheca Spenceriana (1814?15) became famous for the high quality of its printing. Dibdin traveled widely in search of books and manuscripts, and his Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany (1821) is typical of his work in containing much lively anecdote, many factual errors, and some excellent engravings. His Bibliomania (1809) contributed to the public?s interest in old and rare books. Among his many other works is the two-volume autobiography Reminiscences of a Literary Life (1836).? [-Britannica].
Seller: Dark Parks Books & Collectibles, Fallon, NV, U.S.A.
Dibdin, Thomas. The Bibliomania. First edition, with ALS mounted on front pastedown. London, 1809.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: With an Autograph Letter from Dibdin Dibdin, Thomas Frognall (1776-1847). The bibliomania; or, book-madness; containing some account of the history, symptoms, and cure of this fatal disease . . . iv, 87pp. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, 1809. 214 x 124 mm. 20th century half calf, marbled boards, a few tiny scuff-marks on back cover. Light toning but very good. With an Autograph Note signed by Dibdin, dated Jan. 25, [18]41, tipped to the front pastedown, mended with clear tape. First Edition. "Dibdin's Bibliomania, first published in 1809, 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" (Danckwerts, p. vii). Written in less than a month, The Bibliomania marks "the first full flowering of Dibdin's love affair with books" (Windle and Pippin, p. 35); it had the effect of "producing much innocent mirth and exciting a general curiosity after rare and precious volumes" (Dibdin, Reminiscences of a Literary Life, p. 272). Dibdin, a clergyman and inveterate book-lover, was a lively and engaging writer whose works enjoyed great popularity and helped to stimulate enthusiasm for book collecting in the nineteenth century. The autograph note tipped into this copy reads: "Good Mr. Warren, If I had not been cheated of £37.10 that Monday you would have had your £5 with fresh boards last week. As it is please to wait until Saturday next. Always your obliged T. F. Dibdin." Danckwerts, "Introduction," in Dibdin, The Bibliomania (2004), pp. vii-xxxvi. Jackson, Thomas Frognall Dibdin: An Annotated List, 16. Windle and Pippin, Thomas Frognall Dibdin: A Bibliography, A11a. .
Seller: Jeremy Norman's historyofscience, Novato, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. Title vignette. iv, 87, [1, ads] pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Fine Copy in Booklover's Shop Binding. An amusing work; Dibdin's best known. The real action takes place in the footnotes, so copious and detailed that they overwhelm the main text. This copy finely bound by Henry Hardy, Leon Maillard, and Gaston Pilon of the Booklover's Shop bindery in Cleveland. The bindery traces its lineage back to The Club Bindery, founded in 1895 by members of the Grolier Club to provide exceptionally fine binding for American collectors. The Club Bindery moved to Cleveland, where it was successively renamed the Rowfant Bindery (1909-1913), the Booklover's Shop (1914-1917), and finally, The French Binders (1918-1920s), as in-house bindery to Doubelday in Garden City, New York (cf. Martin Antonetti's essay in Bound to Be the Best: The Club Bindery). Jackson 16; Neuburg 5; Windle and Pippin A11a. Provenance: Henry Alden Sherwin (morocco booklabel) Circa 1914 full crushed brown morocco, gilt, a.e.g., the rest uncut, by the Booklover's Shop (signed in gilt on front and rear turn-ins "Bound by The Booklovers Shop Cleveland. Hardy Maillard Pilon"). Small paper repair to margin of title, else fine Title vignette. iv, 87, [1, ads] pp. 1 vols. 8vo
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
DIBDIN, THOMAS FROGNALL. THE BIBLIOMANIA; OR BOOK MADNESS;. W. Savage, London, 1809.
Price: US$2227.46 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: THE BIBLIOMANIA; OR BOOK MADNESS; CONTAINING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORY, SYMPTOMS, AND CURE OF THIS FATAL DISEASE. IN AN EPISTLE ADDRESSED TO RICHARD HEBER, ESQ. BY THE REV. THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN, F.S.A. Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster-Row, By W. Savage, Bedford Bury, Covent Garden. 1809 Price Four Shillings, in Boards. Collation (iv) 87 plus 1 pp. ads. The red morocco binding was executed by Francis Bedford who has signed the binding with his stamp "F. Bedford". Beautiful gold tooling around the inside borders of the front/rear covers, spine with 6 compartments and 5 raised bands with compartments 1,3,4, and 5 with gold stamping/tooled designs, and compartments 2 and 6 with the name of the book and date/London (abrv.) also with gold tooling/lettering. Inside pastedowns/endpapers marbled along with gold tooling/stamped designs in gold around the boarders. Even the boards/covers edges are gold tooled with lines. TEG Top page edges gilt. Francis Bedford (18 June 1799 – 8 June 1883) was an English bookbinder. Bedford was born at Paddington, London, on 18 June 1799; his father is believed to have been a courier attached to the establishment of George III. At an early age he was sent to school in Yorkshire, and on his return to London his guardian, Henry Bower of 38 Great Marlborough Street, apprenticed him in 1817 to a bookbinder named Haigh, in Poland Street, Oxford Street. Only a part of his time was served with Haigh, and in 1822 he was transferred to a binder named Finlay, also of Poland Street, with whom his indentures were completed.[1] At the end of his apprenticeship Bedford entered the workshop of one of the leading bookbinders of the day, Charles Lewis, of 35 Duke Street, St. James's, with whom he worked until the death of his employer, and subsequently managed the business for Lewis's widow.[1] Bedford attracted the notice of William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland, who became a patron and friends. In 1841 Bedford, who had by then left Mrs. Lewis's establishment, entered into partnership with John Clarke of 61 Frith Street, Soho, who had a reputation for binding books in tree-marbled calf. Clarke and Bedford carried on their business in Frith Street until 1850, when the partnership was dissolved.[1] In 1851 Bedford went to the Cape of Good Hope for the benefit of his health, where he remained for a time, the expenses of his journey being defrayed by the Duke of Portland, and on his return to England he established himself in Blue Anchor Yard, York Street, Westminster. He later added 91 York Street to his premises, and remained there until his death, which took place at his residence at Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith, on 8 June 1883 (Wikipedia). Bedford also executed the binding on one of the Shakespeare First Folio's currently part of the Huntington Collection/Library. A very attractive binding and sought after work by DIBDIN.
Seller: Barry's Books, San Antonio, TX, U.S.A.