Thomas Frognall Dibdin facts for kids
Thomas Frognall Dibdin (born in 1776, died November 18, 1847) was an English expert on books, known as a bibliographer. He was born in Calcutta, a city in India, and was the son of Thomas Dibdin, a sailor whose brother was the famous composer Charles Dibdin.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Thomas Dibdin became an orphan when he was very young. His father passed away in 1778 while sailing back to England. His mother died soon after, and an elderly aunt took care of him.
He went to St John's College, Oxford, a famous university. He also studied law for a while at Lincoln's Inn. After trying to work as a lawyer in Worcester without much success, he decided to become a clergyman. He was ordained in late 1804 and started working at a church in Kensington. Later, in 1823, he became the priest for Exning in Sussex. Soon after, he was also appointed to another church, St Mary's, where he worked until he died.
A Life with Books
Thomas Dibdin loved books and spent his life studying them. His first major work about books was called Introduction to the Knowledge of Editions of the Classics, published in 1802. This book caught the attention of Earl Spencer, who became a very important helper in Dibdin's book studies.
Earl Spencer had a huge and valuable library at Althorp, and he let Dibdin use it. Dibdin spent a lot of time there. From 1814 to 1815, he published a work called Bibliotheca Spenceriana. This book shared information about the rare books in Earl Spencer's library, which was very helpful because the library was not open to everyone. However, Dibdin sometimes made mistakes because he couldn't read all the different languages the books were written in.
Popular Book Dialogues
Dibdin also wrote fun, chatty books about his favorite topic: books! These books were written as conversations or dialogues. The first one was Bibliomania, published in 1809. It was so popular that it was re-released with many new parts in 1811 and sold many copies.
Another book in this style was the Bibliographical Decameron, a larger work that came out in 1817.
Important Book Projects
In 1810, Dibdin started working on a new, much bigger edition of a book called Typographical Antiquities by Ames. The first part of this new edition was very successful. However, the project stopped when the fourth part didn't do well, and it was never finished.
In 1818, Earl Spencer asked Dibdin to travel to Europe to buy books for him. Dibdin wrote about this trip in a grand book called Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany (1821). The original drawings made for this book were later sold at an auction in 1822.
Later Works and Challenges
In 1824, Dibdin tried something new with his book Library Companion, or the Young Man's Guide and Old Man's Comfort in the Choice of a Library. This book was supposed to help people choose the best books in all areas of knowledge. However, some people criticized it, saying Dibdin didn't know enough about all the different subjects to write such a guide.
For a few years, Dibdin focused mainly on religious writings. He returned to his love for books with Bibliophobia, or Remarks on the Present Depression in the State of Literature and the Book Trade (1832). This topic also appeared in his Reminiscences of a Literary Life (1836) and his Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in the Northern Counties of England and Scotland (1838).
The Roxburghe Club
Thomas Dibdin was the person who started the Roxburghe Club in 1812. He was the vice-president, and Earl Spencer was the president. This club was the very first "book club," where members would meet and publish rare or interesting old books.
