On the supply of printed books from the library to the reading room of the British Museum

This amazing short tome is about an argument between Anthony Panizzi, Keeper of the Printed Books of the British Museum, and one of the library's users, Sir Nicholas Harris Nicholas. Sir Nicholas has accused Panizzi of poor service because a book that Sir Nick requested was not delivered to him in a timely fashion. Panizzi replies by replicating in print the call slips that Sir Nick filled out and showing (shewing?) that the slips were not filled out in the proper fashion, thus making perfect service quite difficult.

This is a beautiful instance of 19th century mannered drama, and best of all it is (was) entirely real.