Never underestimate an index …

… Anthony Grafton — Fake it till you make it: Indexing — LRB 23 September 2021. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Good indexes actually worked as they were supposed to, but they still attracted plenty of criticism. Even the greatest experts on indexing – the scholarly print professionals who compiled them – feared that they might prevent readers from going through their texts with the proper energy and attentiveness.