In 1869, Dr. Alois Pichler became the so-called “extraordinary librarian” of the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg, Russia. However, a few months after starting this position, Pichler began acting strangely and even stealing books from the library. When Pichler was later put on trial for his thievery, his lawyer alleged that the librarian was not in control of his behavior. Rather, he was a victim of “bibliomania,” a dark, pseudo-psychological illness that swept through the upper classes in Europe and England during the 1800s. Symptoms included a frenzy for culling and hunting down first editions, rare copies, and books of certain sizes. While the illness was never medically classified, it struck fear in the hearts of the continent’s intelligentsia.
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