ings of the libraries would be identical
also; and it must be further remembered that both collegiate and monastic
libraries were being fitted up during the same period, the fifteenth
century.

When books were first placed in a separate room, fastened with iron
chains, for the use of the Fellows of a college or the monks of a convent,
the piece of furniture used was, I take it, an elongated lectern or desk,
of a convenient height for a seated reader to use. The books lay on their
sides on the desk, and were attached by chains to a horizontal bar above
it. There were at least two libraries in this University fitted with such
desks, at the colleges of Pembroke and Queens'; and that it was a common
form abroad is proved by its appearance in a French translation of the
first book of the _Consolations of Philosophy_ of Boethius, which I
lately found in the British Museum[1], executed towards the end of the
fifteenth century (fig. 1).

[Illustration: FIG. 1. Interior of a library: from a MS. of a French
translation of the first book of the _Consolations of Philosophy_ of
Boethius.]

One example at least of these fittings still exists, in the library
attached to the church of S. Wallberg, at Zutphen in Holland. This library
was built in its present position in 1555, but I suspect that some of the
fittings, those namely which are more richly ornamented, were removed from
an earlier library. Each of these desks is 9 feet long by 5 feet 6 inches
high; and, as you will see directly, a man can sit and read at them very
conveniently. I shall shew you first a general view of part of the library
(fig. 2); and, secondly, a single desk (fig. 3).

Such cases as these must have been in use at the Sorbonne, where a library
was first established in 1289 for books chained for the common convenience
of the Fellows (_in communem sociorum utilitatem_). A description of this
library, based probably on records now lost, has been given by Claude
Hemere (Librarian 1638-1643) in his MS. history. This I proceed to
translate:

[Illustration: FIG. 3. Desk in the library at Zutphen: from a photograph.]

The old library was contained under one roof. It was firmly
and solidly built, and was 120 feet long by 36 feet broad.
Further, that it might be the more safe from the danger of
being burnt, should any house in the neighbourhood catch
fire, there was a sufficient interval between it and every
dwelling-house. Each side was p