I’m currently reading “All the Knowledge in the World: A History of the Encyclopedia” by Simon Garfield. It mentions a similar thought held by some around the time of the creation of the Encyclopedia Brittanica. (Late 1700s, if I recall correctly)
There were too many books, and they were being printed by just anyone. Who needs a really long dictionary, anyway?
There’s a lot of references to this, but it looks like there’s not a known source. Interestingly, the first reference to this tablet was from 1908. quoteinvestigator.com/2012/10/22/world-end/