Libraries in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods | Page 8

brethren come into the Chapter
House, the librarian (custos librorum) shall have had a carpet laid down, and all the
books got together upon it, except those which a year previously had been assigned for
reading. These brethren are to bring with them, when they come into the Chapter House,
each his book in his hand....
Then the librarian shall read a statement as to the manner in which brethren have had
books during the past year. As each brother hears his name pronounced he is to give back
the book which had been entrusted to him for reading; and he whose conscience accuses
him of not having read the book through which he had received, is to fall on his face,
confess his fault, and entreat forgiveness.
The librarian shall then make a fresh distribution of books, namely, a different volume to
each brother for his reading.
You will agree with me, I feel sure, that this statute, or similar provisions extracted from
other regulations, is the source of the collegiate provisions for an annual audit and
distribution of books; while the reservation of the undistributed volumes, and their
chaining for common use in a library, was in accordance with the unwritten practice of
the monasteries. This being the case I think that we are justified in assuming that the
internal fittings 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 Héméré (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 pierced with 19 windows of
equal size, that plenty of daylight both from the east and the west (for this was the
direction of the room) might fall upon the desks, and fill the whole length and breadth of
the library. There were 28 desks, marked with the letters of the alphabet, five feet high,
and so arranged that they were separated by a moderate interval. They were loaded with
books, all of which were chained, that no sacrilegious hand might [carry them off. These
chains were attached to the right-hand board of every book] so that they might be readily
thrown aside, and reading not be interfered with. Moreover the volumes could be opened
and shut without difficulty. A reader who sat down in the space between two desks, as
they rose to a height of five feet as I said above, neither saw nor disturbed