Dibdin, Tho.(Thomas) Frognall. A Bibliographical Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany. First Edition. Three Volumes. London, Printed for the Author, by W. Bulmer and W. Nicol, Shakespeare Press, 1821. Vol.1: xxv, (6), 462 pages, lxxix (Index & Addenda). With 13 full page plates (incl. one colour and one fold-out plate) and 23 engraved plates on India paper which are mounted in the text. / Vol. 2: 555 page. With 24 full page plates (incl. two sepia and one double page plate) and 17 engraved plates on India paper which are mounted. / Vol. 3: 622 pages, lxii (Supplement). With 46 full page plates (incl. two colour/sepia and three double page plates) and 24 engraved plates on India paper which are mounted. No half titles. Volume 1 with Dedication page showing Crest of the Roxburghe Club, the first ‘Book Club’. Half-leather with marbled boards. Gilt titles and volume numbers on spine. Volume 3 professionally repaired in 2017 and fitted with new end papers. Very good condition. Boards, corners and hinges a little rubbed and bumped. This is an Ex Library book with an interesting history. All three volumes have a special commemoration plate mounted to front paste-downs: “Norfolk & Norwich Library. This book is Part of the Salvage from the Fire which occurred on August 1st, 1898”. Front free end-papers and title pages show some edge discoloration, possibly because of that fire. The rest of the text pages and plates appears not affected. Edges and pages are a little age darkened and a little browned.

Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776 – 1847), English bibliographer, born at Calcutta, was the son of Thomas Dibdin, the sailor brother of Charles Dibdin.
Dibdin was orphaned at a young age. 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. Later 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. Bibliomania (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).
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 “book club”. (Wikipedia)

• Keywords: Classical & Old Literature · Europe · Fine Bindings & Editions · History & Culture
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 100463AB

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