The five images are:
Roger Bacon seated on a bench in front of a fireplace in a monk’s robe, lost in deep thought with an open book in front of him;
Erasmus, Colet and More seated at a table with Erasmus reading from an open book laid out on the table;
Isaac Walton by a riverbank lolling against a tree with a book in hand and a picnic laid out;
Caxton at his Press reviewing a quarto sheet with two of his craftsmen;
Richard de Bury tutoring young Edward III who is seated at a desk with a large open book in front of him.
The images are very detailed and each one has its own atmosphere. The books in the images are prominent and one feels as if one oculd begin reading the text. Each etching is signed in pencil by Pyle and Bicknell in the lower margin, with each etching also having a printed remarque with Pyle’s initials. Centered in the lower margin is the Bibliophile Society’s ornamental red stamp and Bicknell’s date and signature in the plate.
The Bibliophile Society commissioned Pyle to illustrate Thomas Frognall Dibden’s The Bibliomaniac or Book-Madness. These works are considered some of the finest and attracted so much admiration that it was decided to issue them in a portfolio form. Large etching plates were made by W.H. Bicknell and they were printed in a limited edition. “It is interesting to note that the Albrech Dürer influence from his earlier work Otto of the Silver Hand crept back into this later Bibliophile series” -Pitz.

[Davis, Paul Preston. Howard Pyle. His Life-His Work. Vol. I, pp. 279-280, 303. vol. II, p. 600. Pitz, Howard Pyle p.187. Morse, Brinckle, Howard Pyle. A Record of His Illustrations and Writings, pp. 200-201]

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