hapter that in
ancient Rome the press used for books was essentially the same as that
used for very different purposes; and I submit that it is unnecessary to
suppose that monastic carpenters would invent a special piece of furniture
to hold books. They would take the _armarium_ that was in daily use, and
adapt it to their own purposes.

Before I leave this part of my subject I must mention that there is a
third press in the Church of Saint Germain l'Auxerrois, Paris. It stands
in a small room over the south end of the west porch, which may once have
been a muniment room. It was probably made about a century later than
those which I have figured. In arrangement it bears a general resemblance
to the example from Bayeux. It consists of six cupboards arranged in two
tiers, the lower of which is raised to the level of a bench which extends
along the whole length of the piece of furniture, with its ends mortised
into those of the cupboards. The seat of this bench lifts up, so as to
form an additional receptacle for books or papers[198].

The curious wooden contrivances called carrells, which are mentioned in
the above quotation from the _Rites of Durham_, have of course entirely
disappeared. Nothing is said about their height; but in breadth each of
them was equal to the distance from the middle of one mullion of a window
to the middle of the next; it was made of wainscot, and had a door of open
carved work by which it was entered from the cloister. This arrangement
was doubtless part of the systematic supervision of brother by brother
that was customary in a monastery. Even the aged, though engaged in study,
were not to be left to their own devices. I have carefully measured the
windows at Durham (fig. 28); and, though they have been a good deal
altered, I suppose the mullions are in their original places. If this be
so the carrells could not have been more than 2 ft. 9 in. wide, and the
occupant would have found but little room to spare. There are eleven
windows, so that thirty-three monks could have been accommodated, on the
supposition that all were fitted with carrells.

[Illustration: Fig. 28. Groundplan of one of the windows in the cloister
of Durham Cathedral.]

In the south cloister at Gloucester there is a splendid series of twenty
stone carrells (fig. 29), built between 1370 and 1412. Each carrell is 4
ft. wide, 19 in. deep, and 6 ft. 9 in. high, lighted by a small window of
two lights; but as figures do not gi