To afford the reader an opportunity of noting at a glance the
appropriate learned terms applicable to the different sets of persons
who meddle with books, I subjoin the following definitions, as rendered
in d'Israeli's _Curiosities_ from the _Chasse aux Bibliographes et
Antiquaires mal advisés_ of Jean-Joseph Rive:
'A bibliognoste, from the Greek, is one knowing in title-pages and
colophons, and in editions; the place and year when printed; the presses
whence issued; and all the minutiae of a book.'
'A bibliographe is a describer of books and other literary
arrangements.'
'A bibliomane is an indiscriminate accumulator, who blunders faster than
he buys, cock-brained and purse-heavy.'
'A bibliophile, the lover of books, is the only one in the class who
appears to read them for his own pleasure.'
'A bibliotaphe buries his books, by keeping them under lock, or framing
them in glass cases.'
The accurate Peignot, after accepting of this classification with high
admiration of its simplicity and exhaustiveness, is seized in his
supplementary volume with a misgiving in the matter of the bibliotaphe,
explaining that it ought to be translated as a grave of books, and that
the proper technical expression for the performer referred to by Rive is
bibliotapht. He adds to the nomenclature bibliolyte, as a destroyer of
books; bibliologue, one who discourses about books; bibliotacte, a
classifier of books; and bibliopée 'l'art d'écrire ou de composer des
livres', or, as the unlearned would say, the function of an author.--J.
H. BURTON. _The Book Hunter._