In libraries throughout the middle ages, the order of books on
the shelves in monasteries and cathedrals was by subject and
occasionally by donors, as has been recorded in catalogues
preserved from that time. But according to Bakewell (1972) the
need to mark the location of books was not appreciated until the
fourteenth century, and as he says, the various cumbersome
methods were used to deal with independent works which were
bound together in one volume. From Norris (1939) we learn about
the methods and techniques of book locating and book labelling
(ordo locacionis) which can be followed through the history of
small monastery libraries in mediaeval Europe all the way up to the
19th century. The issue of book ordering found its place in the first
theoretical foundations, examples of good practice, guidelines and
instructions for collection arrangement from 16th -18th century
such as those by Conrad Gesner, Andrew Maunsell, John Dury and
Gabriel Naudé and Abbé Rosier (cf. Bakewell, 1972).