According to Arthur H. Minters the "private collecting of books was a fashion indulged in by many Romans, including Cicero and Atticus". The term bibliophile entered the English language in 1824. A bibliophile is to be distinguished from the much older notion of a bookman (which dates back to 1583), who is one who loves books, and especially reading; more generally, a bookman is one who participates in writing, publishing, or selling books. Lord Spencer and the Marquess of Blandford were noted bibliophiles. "The Roxburghe sale quickly became a foundational myth for the burgeoning secondhand book trade, and remains so to this day"; this sale is memorable due to the competition between "Lord Spencer and the marquis of Blandford [which] drove [the price of a probable first edition of Boccaccio's Decameron] up to the astonishing and unprecedented sum of £2,260".[7] J. P. Morgan was also a noted bibliophile. In 1884, he paid $24,750 for a 1459 edition of the Mainz Psalter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliophiles Bibliomania can be a symptom of obsessive--compulsive disorder which involves the collecting or even hoarding of books to the point where social relations or health are damaged. One of several unusual behaviors associated with books, bibliomania is characterized by the collecting of books which have no use to the collector nor any great intrinsic value to a genuine book collector. The purchase of multiple copies of the same book and edition and the accumulation of books beyond possible capacity of use or enjoyment are frequent symptoms of bibliomania. Bibliomania is not a psychological disorder recognized by the DSM-IV. The term was coined by John Ferriar (1761-1815), a physician at the Manchester Royal Infirmary.[1] Ferriar coined the term in 1809 in a poem he dedicated to his bibliomanic friend, Richard Heber (1773-1833).[2] In the early nineteenth century, "bibliomania" was used in popular discourse (such as in periodical essays and poems) to describe obsessive book collectors. In 1809, the Reverend Thomas Frognall Dibdin published Bibliomania; or Book Madness, a work described by literary critic Philip Connell as "a series of bizarre rambling dialogues which together comprised a kind of dramatized mock pathology, lavishly illustrated and, in the second edition, embellished with extensive footnotes on bibliography and the history of book collecting".[3] The "symptoms" displayed by the biblomaniacs in Dibdin's work include "an obsession with uncut copies, fine paper or vellum pages, unique copies, first editions, blackletter books, illustrated copies, association copies, and condemned or suppressed works". Other book-related conditions Bibliomania is not to be confused with bibliophilia, which is the usual love of books and is not considered a clinical psychological disorder. Other abnormal behaviours involving books include book-eating (bibliophagy), compulsive book-stealing (bibliokleptomania), and book-burying (bibliotaphy). People with bibliomania Stephen Blumberg, who was convicted of stealing $5.3 million worth of books Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Baronet[5] (1792--1872) suffered from severe bibliomania. His collection, which at his death contained over 160,000 books and manuscripts, was still being auctioned off over 100 years after his death. Rev. W.F. Whitcher[6] was a 19th-century Methodist pastor who, after having stolen and rebound rare books, would assert they were rare "finds" from local booksellers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliomania

• published: 15 Jun 2014
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