the book; by which I mean the board which is to the
right hand of a reader when the book lies open before him; but the
selection of the right-hand or the left-hand board depended on individual
taste. Further the mode of attachment is never the same in two examples.
The iron and rivets are often clumsy, and do considerable damage to the
leaves, by forcing them out of shape and staining them with rust.

In this method of chaining no provision is made for removing any book
from the desk when not wanted, and placing it on a shelf beneath the desk,
as was done in some Italian modifications of the system. Each volume must
lie on the desk, attached by its chain, like a Bible on a church-lectern.
The smallest number of volumes on any desk at Zutphen is six; the largest,
eleven; the total, 316. Most of those on the south side of the room were
printed during the first half of the sixteenth century; those on the north
side are much later, some as late as 1630. I did not see any manuscripts.

[Illustration: Fig. 59. Piece of the iron bar, with chain, Zutphen.]

[Illustration: Fig. 60. Chained book, from a Dominican House at Bamberg,
South Germany.]

If we now reconsider the indications preserved at Queens' College, it
will, I feel sure, be recognised that the desks at Zutphen explain them,
and enable us to realise the aspect of what I conceive to have been the
most ancient method of fitting up a collegiate or a monastic library. When
such a room first became necessary in a monastery, and furniture suitable
for it was debated, a lectern would surely suggest itself, as being used
in the numerous daily services, and proving itself singularly convenient
for the support of books while they were being read.

Another example of such fittings was once to be seen at Pembroke College,
Cambridge, in the library above the hall (fig. 48). In Dr Matthew Wren's
account of that library already quoted there is a passage which may be
translated as follows:

I would have you know that in the year 1617 the Library
was completely altered and made to assume an entirely
new appearance. This alteration was rendered necessary
by the serious damage which, to our great sorrow, we
found the books had suffered--a damage which was
increasing daily--partly from the sloping form of the
desks, partly from the inconvenient weight of the chains
(_tum ex declivi pluteorum fabrica, tum ex inepta mole
catenarum_)[318].

Thes