The Care of Books Part 28

[307] Jackson, _ut supra_, p. 98.

[308] The total height of this desk-end is 66 in.; from the ground to the beginning of the groove 31 in.; each slit is 19 in. long.

[309] For scale see fig. 62, p. 163.

[310] _Camb. Ant. Soc. Proc. and Comm._ Vol. VIII. pp. 379-388, 7 May, 1894.

[311] The existing Library is still called the New Library.

[312] _Novum ac Magnum Theatrum Urbium Belgicae_, fol. Amsterdam, 1649, s.

v. Zutphania. For these historical facts I have to thank my friend Mr Gimberg, _Archivarius_ at Zutphen.

[313] I have to thank Mr T. D. Atkinson, architect, for drawing this plan.

[314] I have again to thank Mr Gimberg for this photograph. It was a work of no small difficulty owing to the imperfect light.

[315] For scale see fig. 62, p. 163.

[316] I have described this library in _Camb. Ant. Soc. Proc. and Comm._ Vol. VIII. pp. 11-18.

[317] This book is now in the University Library, Cambridge.

[318] _Arch. Hist._, The Library, III. 429. It is obvious that these heavy chains must have been attached to the lower edge of one of the boards, and that the bar must have been below the desk and not above it. See above, p.

139.

[319] _Arch. Hist._ II. 244.

[320] See above, pp. 117-121.

[321] MSS. Harl. 4335. The picture hanging on the wall represents Philosophy offering her consolation to a sick man.

[322] For this information I have to thank my friend, Bernard W.

Henderson, M.A., Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.

[323] Delisle, _Cabinet des ma.n.u.scrits_, II. 186, _note_.

[324] This account is, in the main, a translation of that given by M.

Delisle, _ut supra_.

[325] Bibl. Nat. Par. MSS. Lat. 5493. For the history of this library see Delisle, _ut supra_, pp. 142-208; Franklin, _Anciennes Bibliotheques de Paris_, I. pp. 221-317.

[326] Franklin, _ut supra_, vol. I. p. 399.

[327] Franklin, _Bibliotheques de Paris_, II. 70.

[328] Delisle, _ut supra_, II. 228-231; Franklin, _ut supra_, I. 135-185.

The catalogue of Claude de Grandrue is in the Bibliotheque Nationale, fonds latin, No. 14767; the alphabetical index in the Bibliotheque Mazarine, No. 1358.

[329] Delisle, p. 228, _note_.

[330] The MS. (No. 164) is by Frere Jehan de Castel.

[331] This reproduction is from a copy of the print now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. It also occurs on a reduced scale in _Les Arts au Moyen Age et a l'Epoque de la Renaissance_ par Paul Lacroix, 4^o. Paris, 1869, p. 492; and in _Ill.u.s.trium Hollandiae et Westfrisiae Ordinum_ etc. 4^o.

Lugd. Bat., 1614.

CHAPTER V.

RECAPITULATION. INVENTION OF THE STALL-SYSTEM. LIBRARY OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD, TAKEN AS A TYPE. SYSTEM OF CHAINING IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. LIBRARIES OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD, AND CLARE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. THE STALL-SYSTEM COPIED AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY, WELLS, AND DURHAM CATHEDRALS. THIS SYSTEM POSSIBLY MONASTIC. LIBRARIES AT CANTERBURY, DOVER PRIORY, CLAIRVAUX.

If the evidence brought forward in the last chapter be accepted, the Library which a Monastery or College built in the fifteenth century was a long narrow room lighted by rows of equidistant windows. Occasionally, if neighbouring buildings allowed, there was a window at the end of the room also. The fittings were lecterns of wood. On these the books were laid, each volume being fastened by a chain to a bar usually placed over the desk, but occasionally, in all probability, in front of it or beneath it.

The readers sat on benches immoveably fixed opposite to each window. It is obvious that reading was convenient enough so long as the students were few, but if they were numerous and the books chained too closely together much annoyance must have been caused. When the University of Oxford pet.i.tioned Humphrey Duke of Gloucester in 1444 to help them to build a new library, they specially dwelt upon the obstacles to study arising from the overcrowded condition of the old room. "Should any student," they said, "be poring over a single volume, as often happens, he keeps three or four others away on account of the books being chained so closely together[332]."

Further, the lectern-system was so wasteful in the matter of s.p.a.ce, that, as books acc.u.mulated, some other piece of furniture had to be devised to contain them. The desk could not be dispensed with so long as books were chained; and it therefore occurred to an ingenious carpenter that the required conditions would be fulfilled if the two halves of the desk were separated, not by a few inches, but by a considerable interval, or broad shelf, with one or more shelves fixed above it. Thus a case was arrived at containing four shelves at least, two to each side of the case, which could be made as long as the width of the library permitted. I propose to call this system "the stall-system," from the word _staulum_ (sometimes written _stalla_, _stallus_, or _stallum_), which is frequently applied to a case for books in a medieval library.

There are at least five fine examples of this system at Oxford--none, I am sorry to say, at Cambridge. There was a set at Clare College, supplied to the old Library about 1627, but they have since been altered by the removal of the desks. Those at Oxford are at Corpus Christi College (1517), S. John's College (1596), Sir Thomas Bodley's library (1598), Merton College (1623), Jesus College (1677-79), Magdalen College (of uncertain date).

As a type of this system I shall take the library of Corpus Christi College, founded in 1516 by Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester. The library was ready for the fittings by the end of March in the following year, as we learn from a building account preserved by Hearne:

8 Henry VIII. This boke made from the xvth day off March unto the x.x.xti day off the same Moneth [30 March, 1517].

Md. couenauntyd and agreid wyth Comell Clerke, for the makyng off the dextis in the liberary, to the summe off xvi, after the maner and forme as they be in Magdaleyn college, except the popie heedes off the seites, thes to be workmanly wrowght and clenly, and he to have all maner off stooff foond hym, and to have for the makyng off on dexte xs the sum off the hole viii. li.[333]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 70. Bookcases and seat in the Library at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

From a photograph taken in 1894.]

The arrangement and appearance of these most interesting cases will be understood from the general view (fig. 70) and from the elevation (fig.

71), but I shall proceed to describe them with some minuteness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 71. Elevation of one bookcase in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.]

The library occupies the first floor of the south side of the quadrangle opposite to the entrance. It is 79 feet 6 inches long, by 21 feet broad, with ten equidistant windows, about 3 feet 6 inches apart, on each side.

At the west end there is an inner library, occupying the angle between the south and west sides of the quadrangle. On each side there are nine bookcases, each 8 ft. 6 in. high, 2 ft. wide, and 7 ft. 6 in. long, divided by part.i.tions into three compartments.

I have carefully studied these cases on several occasions, and it seems to me that the only alterations introduced since the original construction are: (1) the addition of about two feet to the upper portion of the case in order to provide additional shelf-room; (2) a slight change in the arrangements of the desk for the reader; and (3) the addition of the catalogue frame, which by its style is evidently Jacobean, to the end next the central alley. Originally each case had two shelves only, one on the level of the desk (Fig. 71, G, H), and the second about half-way between it and the original top of the case (_ibid._ E, F). Before chaining fell into disuse the cases were heightened so as to provide an additional shelf (_ibid._ C, D). At present the number has been further increased by the addition of a fourth shelf above the desk (_ibid._ A, B), and two below it (_ibid._ I, K, L, M). The desks have been altered by a change in the position of the bracket, and by the suppression of the slit through which the chains usually pa.s.sed, as I shall explain below.

The system of chaining used for the lectern-system required modification and extension to suit this new arrangement of shelves. At Corpus Christi College most of the iron-work remains (fig. 70); but it is necessary to go elsewhere to find chained books actually in use. Of such chaining I know no better example than the Chapter Library in Hereford Cathedral, from a study of which I will describe the system, and shew that it is the same as that employed at Corpus Christi College and elsewhere.

The Chapter Library at Hereford was originally over the west cloister, and there is evidence that it was being fitted up in 1394, when Walter de Rammesbury, B.D., gave 10 for the desks[334]. The original building has long since been destroyed, and the books were transferred from one place to another until the present beautiful structure was built on the old site in 1897.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 73. Part of a bookcase in the Chapter Library, Hereford.]

Throughout these changes some very ancient bookcases have been preserved.

They have been taken to pieces and altered several times, but are probably, in the main, those put up in 1394. Above all, one of them possesses, in thorough working order, the system of chaining, parts of which are to be met with on the cases at Oxford which we have been considering. Of the accompanying ill.u.s.trations the first (fig. 72) gives a general view of the most complete case, that which now contains the ma.n.u.scripts, and the second (fig. 73) shews one compartment of the same case with the books, chains, desk etc. This case is 9 ft. 8 in. long, 2 ft. 2 in. wide and 8 ft. high, exclusive of the cornice. The material is unplaned oak, very rough; the ends are 2-3 in. thick, made of three planks fastened together with strong wooden pegs. The desk has been a good deal altered, and is now inconveniently low, but, as the books were chained, it is evident that there must always have been desks on each case, and moreover the hook which held them up is still to be seen in several places. The frames to contain the catalogue, which closely resemble those at Oxford, are known to have been added in the 17th century by Thomas Thornton, D.D., Canon Residentiary.