Conyers Middleton (1683–1750)
Bibliothecæ cantabrigiensis ordinandæ methodus quædam …
Cantabrigiæ: Typis academicis, 1723

Conyers Middleton set about planning how to re-organise the whole University Library soon after his appointment to the new role of Proto-Bibliothecarius. As he scathingly wrote in this tract, it was in dire need of reform; several members had borrowed books and not returned them for many years, a case in point being the Codex Bezae that had been absent from the Library shelves for many years (a dig at his old nemesis, Bentley). A variant on his suggested classification scheme, finalised in the 1740s under John Taylor, remains in use to the present day.

Cam.b.723.2, pp. 16-17