was at the disposal of all scholars
who desired to use it. When the Revolution came it contained more than
49,000 printed books, and 7000 manuscripts. The fittings belonged to the
period of its latest extension: they appear to have been sumptuous, but
for my present object, uninteresting.

_Views of S. Germain des Pres:_ (1) _from Franklin, "Anciennes
Bibliotheques de Paris,"_ i. 126; (2) _from Bouillart, "Histoire de
l'Abbaye de S. Germain des Prez."_

At Canterbury the library, built as I have said, over the Prior's Chapel,
was 60 feet long, by 22 feet broad; and we know, from some memoranda
written in 1508, when a number of books were sent to be bound or repaired,
that it contained sixteen bookcases, each of which had four shelves. I
have calculated that this library could have contained about 2000 volumes.

I have shewn you a Benedictine House, and will next shew you a bird's-eye
view of Citeaux, the parent house of the Cistercian Order, founded at the
close of the eleventh century. The original was taken, so far as I can
make out, about 1500, at any rate before the primitive buildings had been
seriously altered. The library here occupied two positions--under the roof
between the dormitory and the refectory (which must have been extremely
inconvenient); and subsequently it was rebuilt in an isolated situation on
the north side of the second cloister, over the writing-room
(_scriptorium_). This was also the position of the new library at
Clairvaux--the other great Cistercian House in France--the fame of which
was equal to, if not greater than, that of Citeaux. Of this latter library
we have two descriptions; the first written in 1517, the second in 1723.

_View of Citeaux: from Viollet-Le-Duc, "Dictionnaire de l'Architecture,"_
i. 271.

The former account, by the secretary of the Queen of Sicily, who visited
Clairvaux 13 July 1517, is as follows:

On the same side of the cloister are fourteen studies, where
the monks write and study, and over the said studies is the
new library, to which one mounts by a broad and lofty spiral
staircase from the aforesaid cloister. This library is 189
feet long, by 17 feet wide. In it are 48 seats (_bancs_), and
in each seat 4 shelves (_poulpitres_) furnished with books on
all subjects, but chiefly theology; the greater number of the
said books are of vellum, and written by hand, richly storied
and illuminated. The building that contai