Bibliophobia : remarks on the present languid and depressed state of literature and the book trade, in a letter addressed to the author of the Bibliomania / by Mercurius Rusticus [pseud.] with notes by Cato Parvuz [pseud.].

  • Dibdin, Thomas Frognall, 1776-1847.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bibliophobia : remarks on the present languid and depressed state of literature and the book trade, in a letter addressed to the author of the Bibliomania / by Mercurius Rusticus [pseud.] with notes by Cato Parvuz [pseud.]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    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.