CAMBRIDGE LIBRARY COLLECTION Books of enduring scholarly value Printing and Publishing History The interface between authors and their readers is a fascinating subject in its own right, revealing a great deal about social attitudes, technological progress, aesthetic values, fashionable interests, political positions, economic constraints, and individual personalities. This part of the Cambridge Library Collection reissues classic studies in the area of printing and publishing history that shed light on developments in typography and book design, printing and binding, the rise and fall of publishing houses and periodicals, and the roles of authors and illustrators. It documents the ebb and flow of the book trade supplying a wide range of customers with products from almanacs to novels, bibles to erotica, and poetry to statistics. Bibliophobia In 1809, Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776–1847) published the first edition of Bibliomania, focussing on the contemporary craze for book collecting. Introduced in English at the end of the eighteenth century, the term ‘bibliomania’ – or ‘book-madness’ – gained popularity with the publication of Dibdin’s book, in which bibliophiles conduct dialogues on the nature and history of book collecting, and the symptoms of and possible remedies for this ‘fatal disease’. Published in 1832 under the pseudonym Mercurius Rusticus, Bibliophobia is a short pamphlet, which presents itself as a letter to the author of Bibliomania. The narrator, a book-lover himself, goes on a ‘bibliopolistic pilgrimage’, only to find out that ‘bibliomania is no more’, and that ‘books are only the shadow of what they were’. From book-lovers to collectors, and from booksellers to libraries, the narrator carries out his entertaining yet melancholic investigation all the way to the Bodleian Library. 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In a Letter Addressed to the Author of the Bibliomania Thomas Frognall Dibdin CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paolo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108015592 © in this compilation Cambridge University Press 2010 This edition first published 1932 This digitally printed version 2010 ISBN 978-1-108-01559-2 Paperback This book reproduces the text of the original edition. The content and language reflect the beliefs, practices and terminology of their time, and have not been updated. Cambridge University Press wishes to make clear that the book, unless originally published by Cambridge, is not being republished by, in association or collaboration with, or with the endorsement or approval of, the original publisher or its successors in title. BIBLIOPHOBIA. REMARKS ON THE PRESENT LANGUID AND DEPRESSED STATE OF LITERATURE AND THE BOOK TRADE. IN A LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE AUTHOR OF THE BY MERCURIUS RUSTICUS. WITH NOTES BY CATO PARVUS. " FEAR is the order of the day. To those very natural and long1 established fears of bailiffs and taxgatherers, must now be added the fear of Reform, of Cholera, and of BOOKS." p. 6. LONDON: HENRY BOHN, 4, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1832. ERRATUM. Page 17, note, last line but 3, for " Wallis," read " Goodall." ADVERTISEMENT. The ensuing pages would never have seen the light, but that, on shewing them in MS. to a neighbouring friend—who lives just across the moor—he was pleased to express a very favourable opinion of their probable good tendency, if given to the world; adding, that a few NOTES,* which he would cheerfully supply, might perhaps help to promote the object in view. As I knew him to be well versed in the ar- cana both of black-letter and of modern publica- tions, and most regular in his annual visits to the Metropolis, I thankfully accepted his offer. I hope therefore that the text and notes together may prove acceptable to the kind-hearted reader, who cannot but sympathize with their author in the pre- sent melancholy prevalence of the disease of Bib- liophobia; which is altogether new in its charac- teristics, and ominous of the most direful results. The first two notes of my friend bear his name : CATO PAEVUS, or the Initials: afterwards, they have neither name nor initials. My own few notes bear the initials M. H, A LETTER, &c. Laurel Lodge. Oct. 31,1831. REVEREND SIR, It is now, I believe, upwards of twenty-years, since you kindly undertook the useful task of making the public acquainted with the symptoms or characteristics of the dread- ful disease called the BIBLIOMANIA. With the symptoms of the disease, you also furnished them with the means of its cure. But, strange to say, the very opposite to the effect predicted took place. The mania increased in fury. Its ravages spread far and wide, and its victims were nume- rous. Men seemed to judge by " the rule of contrary.'' They hunted hole and corner for black letter, and large paper, and uncut, copies of the several works they were in search of; and, with the palpable evidence of astounding facts before their eyes,, they rushed infatuatedly for- ward to embrace the very causes of self-destruc- tion. Such heart-rending cases of felo-de-se had never been before recorded.