The subluminous type Ia Supernova 1998de in NGC 252

We present spectroscopic and extensive photometric observations of supernov a (SN) 1998de in the S0 galaxy NGC 252, discovered during the course of the Lick Observatory Supernova Search. These data, which span a time period of 8 days before to 76 days after B-band maximum, unambiguously establish SN 1998de as a peculiar and subluminous Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) with strong similarities to SN 1991bg, the prototype of these intrinsically dim SNe Ia. We find that SN 1998de, which has Deltam(15)(B) = 1.95 +/- 0.09 mag, rises and declines much faster than normal SNe Ia and does not exhibit the usual plateau in the R band. In the I band it shows a short plateau phase or pos sibly a secondary maximum, soon after the first maximum. We find that sublu minous SNe Ia with the same value of Deltam(15)(B) can have slightly differ ent light curves at longer wavelengths. The notable spectroscopic similarit ies between SN 1998de and SN 1991bg are the wide Ti II trough at 4100-4500 Angstrom, the strong Ca II features, and the early onset of the nebular pha se. We observe that spectroscopic deviations of SN 1998de from SN 1991bg in crease toward redder wavelengths. These deviations include the absence of t he conspicuous Na I D absorption found in SN 1991bg at 5700 Angstrom and th e evolution of a region (6800-7600 Angstrom) from featureless to feature-ri ch. Several lines of evidence suggest that SN 1998de was a slightly more po werful explosion than SN 1991bg. We discuss the implications of our observa tions for progenitor models and the explosion mechanism of peculiar, sublum inous SNe Ia. The extensive photometric data make SN 1998de a better templa te than SN 1991bg for calibrating the low-luminosity end of the luminosity versus decline rate relationship.