and six feet wide. Each bookcase in his library was surmounted by a bust of a historical personage, including Augustus Caesar, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Nero, Otho, and Vespasian. In total, he had fourteen busts, and his scheme involved a designation of bust name/shelf letter/volume number from left end. Thus, the two most famous of the manuscripts from the Cotton library are "Cotton Vitellius A.xv" and "Cotton Nero A.x". In Cotton's own day, that meant "Under the bust of Vitellius, top shelf (A), and count fifteen over" for the volume containing the Nowell Codex (including Beowulf) and "Go to the bust of Nero, top shelf, tenth book" for the manuscript containing all the works of the Pearl Poet. The manuscripts are still catalogued by these call numbers in the British Library. According to scholar, Colin Tite, the system according to the busts was probably not in full effect until 1638; however there are notes that suggest that Sir Robert planned to arrange the library in this system before his death in 1631, but was probably, as Tite hypothesises, interrupted during the implementation by the closure of the library in 1629. In 1696, the first printed catalogue of the Cotton library's holdings was published by Thomas Smith, the librarian of Sir John Cotton, Sir Robert Cotton's grandson. The library's official catalogue was published in 1802 by Joseph Planta, which remained the standard guide to the library's contents until modern times. Selected manuscripts Augustus ii.106 Magna Carta: Exemplification of 1215 Caligula A.ii "A Pistil of Susan" (frag.) (probably by Huchoun) A.xv Easter Table Chronicle Claudius B.vi Cotton Genesis (fragmentary) D.ii Leges Henrici Primi, an illuminated manuscript of a 12th-century legal treatise, copied around 1310 D.iv fos 48–54 De Iniusta Vexacione Willelmi Episcopi Primi (missing introduction and parts of the conclusion) Cleopatra A.ii Life of St Modwenna Domitian A.viii: Bilingual Canterbury Epitome (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle F) A.ix fragment of the Bilingual Canterbury Epitome (ASC H), futhorc row Faustina A.x Additional Glosses to the Glossary in Ælfric's Grammar Galba A.xviii Athelstan Psalter Julius A.vi Julius Work Calendar A.x Old English Martyrology E.vii Ælfric's Lives of Saints Nero A.x Pearl, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight D.iv Lindisfarne Gospels Otho A.xii The Battle of Maldon (destroyed in 1731) B.x Mary of Egypt (fragmentary) B.x.165 Anglo-Saxon rune poem (destroyed in 1731) B.xi.2 fragment of a copy of the Parker Chronicle (ASC G or A2, the copy of Winchester