faire
des lectures lorsqu'ils veulent....

Du grand cloitre on entre dans le cloitre du colloque,
ainsi appelle, parce qu'il est permis aux religieux d'y
parler. Il y a dans ce cloitre douze ou quinze petites
cellules tout d'un rang, ou les religieux ecrivoient
autrefois des livres: c'est pourquoy on les appelle
encore aujourd'hui les ecritoires. Au-dessus de ces
cellules est la bibliotheque, dont le vaisseau est
grand, voute, bien perce, et rempli d'un grand nombre de
manuscrits, attachez avec des chaines sur des pupitres,
mais il y a peu de livres imprimez[239].

The plan of the substruction of this new library, as shewn on the
ground-plan of Clairvaux given by Viollet Le Duc[240], is exactly the same
as that of Citeaux (fig. 33) but on a larger scale. The library itself, as
there, was approached by a newel stair at its south-west corner. This
stair was hexagonal, and of a diameter sufficient to allow three men to
ascend at the same time. The library was of great extent--being about 206
feet long by 56 feet broad--if the dimensions given in the above account
be correct, and if I am right in supposing a pace (_passee_) to be
equivalent to a modern _metre_; vaulted, and well lighted. The Queen's
secretary seems to have been specially struck by the beauty, the size, and
the decoration of the windows. The floor was paved with encaustic tiles.

It will be interesting to note how, in some Houses, the library slowly
expanded itself, occupying, one after another, every coign of
vantage-ground. An excellent example of this growth is to be found in the
abbey of Saint Germain des Pres, Paris; and fortunately there are several
views, taken at different periods before the Revolution, on which the
gradual extension of the library can be readily traced. I append a portion
of two of these. The first (fig. 36), dated 1687, shews the library over
the south walk of the cloister, where it was placed in 1555. It must not,
however, be supposed that no library existed before this. On the contrary,
the House seems to have had one from the first foundation, and so early as
the thirteenth century it could be consulted by strangers, and books
borrowed from it. The second view (fig. 37), dated 1724, shews a still
further extension of the library. It has now invaded the west side of the
cloister, which has received an upper storey; and even the external
appearance of the venerable Frater, which was r