Conyers Middleton (1683–1750)
Antiquitates Middletonianae
London: R. Manby and H.S. Cox, 1745

Late in 1723 Middleton left England for Italy, staying for a year on the grounds of ill health and ‘for the viewing of foreign libraries’, as well as to escape the ongoing suit with Bentley. On his visit to the Vatican the Librarian professed to have heard of Cambridge only as a kind of nursery school for prospective Oxford students; to prove that Cambridge had a University and Library worthy of commemoration, Middleton had a his portrait as Protobibliothecarius cast on a bronze medallion by the artist Giovanni Battista Pozzo (1670–1752). Here illustrating a catalogue of Middleton’s collection of classical antiquities, the verso of the medallion illustrates the library as well-stocked and well-organised – perhaps not strictly accurate, but impressive.

Mm.4.86, title page