The origin of the catalogue may be traced back to June 21, 1759, when the Trustees of the Museum, which had been opened to the public the preceding January, recorded the following remarkable minute: "The Committee think proper to add that the requiring the attendance of the officers during the whole six hours that the Museum is kept open is not a wanton or useless piece of severity, as the two vacant hours (if it is not thought too great a burden on the officers) might very usefully be employed by them in better ranging the several collections . . . and preparing catalogues for publication, which last the Committee think so necessary a work, that till it is performed the several collections can be but imperfectly useful to the public."
The labours which this apologetic suggestion may be supposed to have started took permanent form in the catalogue of 1787, which again was superseded by that of 1807–19, prepared by Sir Henry Ellis and Mr. Baber. In the years 1826–34 a futile attempt at a classified catalogue was made, under the direction of the Rev. T. Hartwell Horne. Three years later Mr. (afterwards Sir Anthony) Panizzi became head of the Printed Books Department, and proceeded to draw up, with his senior colleagues, the celebrated Ninety-one Rules for Cataloguing. Against Panizzi's wish the Trustees entered upon an ill-considered scheme for printing the whole catalogue, with confident hopes of finishing it by December 1844. This enterprise stopped at letter A, and Panizzi was left free for the task of compiling a complete and accurate
