Archive.org direct link (volume 1)
Archive.org direct link (volume 2)
Open Library main page
An extensive bibliography of editions of classical works, mainly of interest because the fairly detailed entries make for interesting browsing. Dibdin was a key figure in the development of bibliography. This fourth edition of his work was rewritten from previous and skips grammarians and collections.
Dibdin ranges from praise ("An uncommon and magnificent edition: it has a number of curious wood-cuts, and the typography is exceedingly splendid.") to remarks on collecting interest ("By no means a scarce work; many copies having been sold at the principal sales, and the London booksellers being frequently in possession of it.") to the occasional swipe ("In an investigation of this sort it is necessary to take so much notice of errors, that you will perhaps have concluded Arnoldus de Bruxella's edition to be one of the most faulty of the fifteenth century.").
I'm always surprised at just how much was published during this period. Not to mention changes in taste. There are six and a half pages about Silicus Italicus who is so forgotten now I had to look him up (he wrote the longest surviving Latin poem).
Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776-1847) was born in Calcutta and educated at Oxford. He became a clergyman but seems to have spent more time on his bibliographies (including a period at Antwerp). His Bibliomania seems to have been popular at the time. A very short biography by Edward John O'Dwyer was published in 1967. There's also a bibliography of Dibdin's works.
