With an understanding of ‘bibliography’ in its original sense of writing about books, this chapter provides a genealogy of the British bibliographical essay, commencing with the medieval bibliophile Richard de Bury. It traces the development of that species of essay through the eighteenth century, when essays started widely appearing in broadsides, newspapers, and magazines as well as books, motivating essayists to reflect upon the material form in which they were publishing. Following the periodical essayists’ critique of commercial print culture, Romantic essayists like Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, and Thomas De Quincey turned their attention to old books, emphasising their tangible, material value, while at the same time upholding literature’s immaterial qualities. In the age of bibliomania, antiquarian books became an opportunity for the bibliographical essay to come into its own among an expanding audience of bibliophiles and collectors.

The changing market for rare books forms the focus of this chapter, looking at the impact of the French Revolution not just on the dispersed libraries of the old regime, but the emergence of new ways of classifying and consuming historic editions. It identifies the expanded market for rare books from the 1790s: both the resourceful dealers who were able to exploit the demand for works by historic printing houses, and the restless bibliophiles who scavenged across the city on the hunt for rare editions. It reconsiders why this period saw the rise of the so-called bibliomaniac, as well as the growth in new ways to classify rare books (via bibliography) and new forms of bibliophile sociability. Touching on key figures such as Charles Nodier, Guilbert de Pixéricourt, Antoine-Augustin Renouard and Arthur-Marie-Henri Boulard, the chapter argues for a mode of book collecting that was self-consciously anachronistic, seeking to celebrate the pre-revolutionary world of elite learning.