ssimos) published by
the Record Commission in the early years of the nineteenth century fall
within the category of your collecting activities, you will require one
shelf at least no less than nineteen inches in height. If only for the
sake of your peace of mind I would strongly advise you not to begin
collecting early Spanish antiphonaries, such as you may see in the
Escurial; for these are frequently six feet high and four feet wide, and
are really out of place in the small domestic library. I forget for the
moment their precise dimensions in millimetres.

It is a mistake to have the top shelves too high. Not to speak of the
inconvenience of having to stretch upon tip-toe or mount a chair in order
to obtain a volume, your books will be subjected to a higher temperature
the nearer they are to the ceiling. Blades, in his 'Enemies of Books,' is
emphatic upon this point. 'Heat alone,' he says, 'without any noxious
fumes is, if continuous, very injurious to books; and, without gas,
bindings may be utterly destroyed by desiccation, the leather losing all
its natural oils by long exposure to much heat. It is, therefore, a great
pity to place books high up in a room where heat of any kind is used, for
it must rise to the top, and if sufficient to be of comfort to the
readers below is certain to be hot enough above to injure the bindings.'

Gas is one of the greatest enemies of books, the sulphur in the gas fumes
attacking the leather bindings readily, so that in time they are reduced
to tinder. So if gas be the illuminant in your study, see to it that no
volume of yours be above the level of the burner. In any case, if space
will permit, the highest shelf should not be more than six feet from the
ground. For similar reasons of temperature, the bottom shelves should be
six inches above the floor.

As to the actual length of the shelves, if constructed of wood
five-eighths of an inch thick _when planed_, they should not exceed two
feet two inches in length between supports. If made longer they will
gradually bend in the middle under the weight of the books and soon look
unsightly. But if made of three-quarter-inch wood, they may well be three
feet long.

Now as to the actual construction of the cases. We will suppose that the
entire case, that is shelves and uprights, is to be made of planks
five-eighths of an inch thick when planed. The first thing to do is to
estimate how many feet of timber you will require. Measure your