DIBDIN, THOMAS FROGNALL English bibliographer, born at Calcutta, was the son of Thomas Dibdin, the sailor brother of Charles Dibdin. He was educated at St. John's college, Oxford, and was entered at Lincoln's Inn. After an unsuccessful attempt to obtain practice as a provincial counsel at Worcester, he was ordained at the close of 1804, being ap pointed to a curacy at Kensington. In 1823 he received the living at Exning, in Sussex. Soon afterwards 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 bibli ographical works was his Introduction to the Knowledge of Editions of the Classics (1802), which brought him under the notice of the third Earl Spencer, who threw open to him the rich library at Althorp; he spent much of his time in it, and in 1814-15 published his Bibliotheca Spenceriana. In 1818 he was commissioned by Earl Spencer to purchase books for him on the Continent, an expedition described in his sumptuous Bibliogra phical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany (1821). Dibdin was the originator and vice-president of the Roxburghe Club, founded in 1812.
Other works of his are Bibliomania (1809) ; Reminiscences of a Literary Life (1836), and Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in the Northern Counties of England and Scotland (1838).