bibliomania

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Book enthusiast, woodcut from S. Brant: Ship of Fools , 1494

The term bibliomania ( Greek  biblion = book + mania = delusion ) denotes an excessive passion for books that show signs of addiction .

history

The gathering is to about 1,700 a vanitas motif, something more reprehensible. Sebastian Brant's Ship of Fools is led by the book fool . The caption for Brant reads: “I go ahead in the fool's dance because I see many books around me that I do not read and understand.” - Lack of understanding and indiscretion are cited as negative characteristics of book addiction.

Collecting was not appreciated until the 18th century. Since then there has been bibliophilia , which, on the contrary, is presented as a virtue because it is not indiscriminate and uncomprehending. Since that time, bibliomania, like reading addiction, is no longer described as a vice but as a disease, and can also be found in medical literature.

variants

There are the following names for variants of bibliomania:

  • Biblioclast (from Greek klastein = to break): someone who is obsessed with the desire to destroy books.
  • Biblio kleptoman (from Greek kléptein = to steal): compulsive and impulsive stealing of books without material interest.
  • Bibliopath (from Greek pathos = suffering): someone who books make sick.
  • Bibliophag (from ancient Greek φαγεῖν to Latin phagein = to eat): someone who "eats" or literally devours books.
  • Bibliophob (from Greek phobos = fear): someone who is afraid of books.
  • Biblioskop (from Greek skopein = to look at): someone who flips through books without reading.
  • Bibliotaph (from Greek taphos = grave): someone who compulsively hides his books and hides them from the world (“like in a grave”).
  • Bibliovers (from Latin versus = against): someone who uses books for purposes other than intended .

Well-known bibliomaniacs

Fictitious or true reports of criminal (book) collectors are numerous. Their subject were in the 18./19. Century often members of the clergy or the nobility . The first known case of a criminal bibliomaniac in Germany was the pastor Johann Georg Tinius . He embezzled church funds and carried out several robbery and murder attempts to finance his passion for collecting. For this he was sentenced to twelve years in prison in 1823.

An example of a bibliotaph is the Comte de Lignerolles (1816-1893), who allegedly withdrew completely from social life from 1848 (the year of the February Revolution ) and only devoted himself to the expansion and maintenance of his book collection, which he held in one kept a specially designated apartment in Paris. He did not share his knowledge with others and even denied owning certain books. The size and value of his collection was only revealed when the books were auctioned after his death.

See also

literature

  • Sebastian Brant : The Ship of Fools . Transferred from HA Junghans. Revised and reissued with notes and an afterword by Hans-Joachim Mähl . Reprint of the 1998 edition with bibliographical additions. Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-15-000899-9 ( Reclams Universal-Bibliothek 899).
  • Alexander Košenina : The learned fool. Scholarly satire since the Enlightenment . Wallstein, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89244-531-1 , see in particular p. 133 ff.
  • Wulf D. von Lucius : Lust for books - From collecting . DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-7701-4724-3 .
  • Otto Mühlbrecht: The book lover in its development until the end of the 19th century. 2. verb. u. probably edition Bielefeld u. Leipzig 1898. (In it p. 219–225: The love of books as a passion. )
  • Georg Ruppelt : Book people in books. From antiquarians and booksellers, publishers and bookbinders, book printers and typesetters, book molesters and book thieves, from the last author and the future of books . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-447-03922-1 ( Harrassowitz Collection ).
  • Leon H. Vincent: The Bibliotaph and Other People . Houghton, Mifflin and Company et al., Boston MA et al. 1898, see [1] .
  • Klaus Walther : Collecting books . Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-423-34142-4 ( Small Philosophy of Passions - dtv 34142).

Web links

Wiktionary: Bibliomania  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. Volker Faust: About the pathological and salutary use of books