DIBDIN, REV. THOMAS FROGNALL, the most conspicuous English writer on Bibliography in the earlier half of the nineteenth century, was born at Calcutta in 1776. His father, Captain Thomas Dibdin, the commander of a sloop of war in the Indian Ocean, was the elder brother of Charles Dibdin, the celebrated naval song-writer. [DIanne, CHARLES.) Both he and his wife, whom he had first met in the East Indies, died on their passage home in the year 1780, and Frog nall Dibdin first leaded on the English shore an orphan of four years old. His mother's brother, Mr. Compton, took charge of him from that age to man's estate; and of other relations he raw so little, that, he tells us in his 'Reminiscences,' he conversed with his famous uncle Charles but once in his life, though Charles lived till 1814, when Frog nall was eight-and-thirty. He was sent to St. John's College, Oxford, but quitted the university without taking a degree, and studied the law under Mr. Basil Montague, whose office he left to practise in the unusual character of a provincial counsel at Worcester.
Finding no prospect of success, he soon abandoned the law for the church; and a passage in his ' Reminiscences,' in which he describes his studies, furnishes the key-note of much of his subsequent career. "In Greek Testaments my little library was rather richly stored. I revelled in choice copies of tho first Erasmus, and of the first Stephen, and defied any neighbouring clergyman to match me in Elzevirs and in Tonson." In London, to which he speedily returned, and where he became a preacher at some fashionable chapels at tho west-end, he was less known in the clerical than In the literary, or rather the book selling world. At that time, the ‘blbliomania; as it was called, or fancy fur purchasing rare and curious books at extravagant prices, was advancing to a height which it had never before attained iu Eng. land or elsewhere. It reached its culminating point at the celebrated sale of the library of the Duke of Roxburghe, iu June 1812, where a copy of an early edition of Boccaccio, printed by Valdarfer, at Florence, in 1471, was sold to the Marquis of Blaudford, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, for the sum of 2200f. ; and it was afterwards discovered that an imperfect copy of the same book was in the Sunderland library at Blenheim, at the very time of the purchase, but had three times over escaped being mentioned in the catalogue.
Dr. Dibdin proposed, at a dinner party at Baron Bolland'a, even before the Valdarfer was sold, the establishment of a club, to dine together In honour of Bibliography. The club was established tinder the name of the ltoxburghe Club : and he became the first vice prisideut. This club afterwards adopted the rule that each of its members should every year reprint a book, to be presented to every member; and this practice seems to have led to the establishment of the numerous printing and publishing clubs now in existence, more liberal in their regulations than the original. The rise and progress
of the biblioniania was stimulated and recorded by different publica tions of Dr. Dibden : an ' Introduction to the Greek and Roman Classics,' in 18U2; a dialogue, entitled 'Bibliomania,' in 1809, which was reprinted, with great enlargements in 2 vols., in 1811; and the ' Bib liographical Decameron,' in three large vole., in 1817. A new edition of Ames a' Typographical Antiquities' was also commenced by him, and carried as tar as four volumes, between 1810 and 1819 ; and a minute account of the rare books in Earl Spencer's library, under the title of the ' Bibliotheca Spenceriana,' which occupied four volumes, and was extended by the Ades Althorpianre,' a description of Earl Spencer's seat at Althorp ; and by an account of the Cassano library purchased by him ; in the whole seven volumes. In 1818, Dr. Dibdin made a tour abroad, to purchase books for the same patron, and the result was, a' Bibliographical, Antiquarian, and Picturesque Tour in Franca and Germany, 3 vole. 8vo, 1821. These works, particularly the' Bib. liographleal Decameron' and the Tour,' present beautiful specimens of typography and engraving, produced at an expense which the author was never weary of proclaiming. In The Library Companion ; or Young man's Guide and Old Man's Comfort in the Choice of a Library' (1824), be apparently aspired at producing something of more general and permanent use ; but the result was disastrous. The flippant and frivolous character of his remarks, and the inaccurate and auperficia character of his information, were commented upun in so severe a tom by some of tho leading reviews, in particular the Quarterly and tho Westminster,' that his reputation never recovered the shock. In tho preceding year ha had obtained, by the patronage of Earl Spencer, hh first preferment in the church—the living of Ezning, near New narket; he was afterwards appointed to the rectory of St. Mary, 3ryanstoue Square; and his publications for some years were chiefly of a theological character. He returoect to the field of bibliography n his Reminiscences of a Literary Life' (2 vole. 1836), and in his Bibliographical, Antiquarian, and Picturesque Tour in the Northern Jounties of England and in Scotland' (3 vols. 1838). He also made, tot long before his death, a tour iu Belgium, of which he also intended ,o publish an account. He died on the 18th of November 1847, ifter a long illness, of paralysis of the braiu. His latter years had seen much clouded with pecuniary difficulties.