In the 19th century, book collecting became common among gentlemen, mostly in Britain, and grew into an obsession that one of its participants called “bibliomania”. Thomas Frognall Dibdin, an English cleric and bibliographer, wrote Bibliomania, or Book Madness: A Bibliographical Romance, which was a gentle satire of those he saw as afflicted with this “neurosis”. Photograph: Alamy Stock PhotoAs colonial-era explorers would help themselves to other countries’ archaeological treasures or artworks, book collectors were arguably guilty of similar cultural theft. By the turn of the century, as evidenced by a 1906 Metropolitan Museum of Art article, book collecting was no longer disparaged. Perhaps today, bibliomania does not feel like an irrational behaviour, as books have become less venerated and libraries rarer.

Source: The Guardian January 26, 2017 10:12 UTC