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It is well known that, for a small category $\mathbf A$, the category $\widehat{\mathbf A} = [\mathbf A^\circ, \mathbf{Set}]$ of presheaves on $\mathbf A$ together with the Yoneda embedding $\mathbf A …

The earliest reference I can find to the universal property of the presheaf construction is Proposition 9.1 of André's Categories of Functors and Adjoint Functors (1966). There is an earlier reference …

A locally small category $A$ is called total if its Yoneda embedding $A \to [A^\circ, \mathbf{Set}]$ has a left adjoint. Such categories are necessarily small-cocomplete (since the presheaf category …

Given a small category $\mathbb C$, we can form the free cocompletion $\mathbf y : \mathbb C \to \mathcal P(\mathbb C)$ and the free completion $\mathbf y^\circ : \mathbb C \to \mathcal P^\circ(\mathb …

Let $\mathscr C$ be a finitely complete category. Let $x, y$ be objects of $\mathscr C$. We can describe the universal property of freely adjoining a morphism $x \to y$ to $\mathscr C$: it comprises a …

For a category $\mathbf C$, the category of families of $\mathbf C$, denoted $\mathrm{Fam}(\mathbf C)$ is the free coproduct completion of $\mathbf C$. Explicitly, the objects of $\mathbf C$ are given …

In Bénabou's Les distributeurs, in which the bicategory of profunctors is introduced, Bénabou remarks (page 17, quoted below) that $\mathbf{Prof}$ may be viewed as the construction of a bicategory fro …

Let $P$ be a distributor/profunctor from a small category $A$ to a small category $B$, i.e. a functor $P : B^\circ \times A \to \mathrm{Set}$. We may then define a distributor from $[A^\circ, \mathrm{ …

Given a bicategory $\mathcal K$, is there a universal construction of a bicategory $\mathcal K'$ and faithful locally fully faithful pseudofunctor $\mathcal K \hookrightarrow \mathcal K'$ such that fo …

Let $\mathscr K$ be a small 2-category. It follows from $\mathrm{Cat}$-enriched category theory that the free cocompletion of $\mathscr K$ under strict 2-colimits of 2-functors is given by the 2-categ …

A partial answer is contained in Betti's Formal theory of internal categories (page 49), where he states that the bicategory $\mathbf{Dist}(\mathcal E)$ of $\mathcal E$-internal distributors is the fr …

For each small 2-category $\mathscr K$, the 2-category $[\mathscr K^\circ, \mathrm{Cat}]$ of 2-functors and 2-natural transformations has a universal property: it is the free cocompletion of $\mathscr …

I discovered a related characterisation in Betti's Formal theory of internal categories. For $\mathcal E$ a finitely complete category, Betti claims (in the theorem at the top of page 49) that $\mathb …

I shall sketch out a proof that $\mathbf{Prof}$ is almost obtained from $\mathbf{Cat}$ by adjoining right adjoints to every 1-cell, following Roald Koudenburg's suggestions in the comments. The remain …

Internal categories and enriched categories can both be realised as monads in certain bicategories. If $\mathcal E$ is a category with pullbacks, then a monad in $\mathbf{Span}(\mathcal E)$ is a categ …