The Care of Books Part 36

La stanza destinata a questi libri e alia mano sinistra di chi entra nel Palazzo contigua al vestibolo, o andito ... le fenestre ha volte a Tramontana, le quali per esser alte dal pavimento, ed in testa della stanza, e volte a parte di cielo che non ha sole, fanno un certo lume rimesso, il quale pare col non distraer la vista con la soverchia abbondanza della luce, che inviti ed inciti coloro rhe v'entrano a studiare. La state e freschissima, l' inverno temperatamente calda. Le scanzie de' libri sono accostate alle mura, e disposte con molto bell' ordine.

In questa fra gli altri libri sono due Bibbie, una latina scritta a penna e miniata per mano di eccellentissimi artefici, e l' altra Ebrea antichissima scritta pure a mano ... Questa si posa sopra un gran leggivo d' ottone, e s' appoggia all' ale d' una grande aquila pur d' ottone che aprendole la sostiene. Intorno alle cornici che circondano la libreria si leggono scritti nel fregio questi versi[420].

In the preface to the catalogue of the library published at Rome in 1895, the author, after quoting the above pa.s.sage, adds "There were eight presses each containing seven shelves"[421]. The architectural decorations have all disappeared, with the exception of a fragment of a pediment at the south end of the room, on which F. E. DVX is still visible. The lectern is in the choir of the cathedral.

The Biblioteca Laurenziana, or Medicean Library, at Florence, is the last Italian library which I intend to describe.

After the death of Pope Leo X. in 1521, his executor Cardinal Giulio dei Medici, afterwards Pope Clement VII., restored to Florence the books which their ancestors had got together, and commissioned Michelangelo to build a room for their reception. The work was frequently interrupted, and it was not until 1571 (11 June) that the library was formally opened.

The great architect, supported by the generosity of the Pope, constructed an apartment which for convenience and for appropriate decoration stands alone among libraries. It is raised high above the ground in order to secure an ample supply of light and air, and is approached by a double staircase of marble. It is 151 ft. 9 in. long, by 34 ft. 4 in. broad, and was originally lighted by 15 windows in each of the side-walls at a height of about 7 ft. 6 in. from the floor. There is a flat roof of wood, carved; and a pavement of terra-cotta consisting of yellow designs on a red ground.

When the room was first fitted up there were 44 desks on each side, but when the reading-room was built at the beginning of the last century, four were destroyed. This reading-room also blocks four windows. The gla.s.s was supplied by Giovanni da Udine in 1567 and 1568. The subjects are heraldic. In each window the arms of the Medici occupy a central position, and are surrounded by wreaths, arabesques, and other devices of infinite grace and variety, in the style which the genius of Raphael had introduced into the Vatican.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 101. Bookcases in the Medicean Library, Florence.]

The bookcases (fig. 101) are of walnut-wood, a material which is said to have been prescribed by the Pope himself. They were executed, if we may believe Vasari[422], by Battista del Cinque and Ciapino, but they are now known to have been designed by Michelangelo. A rough outline in one of his sketch-books, preserved in the Casa Buonarotti at Florence with other relics ill.u.s.trating his life, and here reproduced (fig. 102), unquestionably represents one of these desks. The indication of a human figure on the seat proves the care which he took to ensure a height convenient for readers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 102. Copy, slightly reduced, of a sketch by Michelangelo for one of the bookcases in the Medicean Library, Florence.]

These desks are on the same general plan as those at Cesena, but they are rather higher and more richly ornamented. Each is 11 ft. 3 in. long, and 4 ft. 4 in. high. It must be admitted that the straight back to the reader's seat is not so comfortable as the gentle slope provided in the older example. A frame for the catalogue hangs on the end of each desk next the central alley. In order to make clear the differences in the construction of the desks at Cesena and at Florence I append an elevation of each (figs. 103, 104).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 103. Elevation of desks at Cesena.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 104. Elevation of desks at Florence.]

It will be seen from the view of one of the desks (fig. 101) that the books either lie on the sloping desk or are packed away on the shelf under it. There is an average of 25 books on each desk. The chains, as at Cesena, are attached to the lower edge of the right board, at distances varying from 2 in. to 4 in. from the back of the book (fig. 105). The staple is sunk into the wood.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 105. A book in the Medicean Library, to shew attachment of chain.]

The chains are made of fine iron bars about one-eighth of an inch wide, but not quite so thick, flattened at the end of each link, and rounded in the centre, where a piece of the same iron is lapped round, but not soldered. Each chain (fig. 106) is 2 ft. 3 in. long. So far as I could judge all the chains in the library are of the same length. There is a ring at the end of the chain next to the bar, but no swivel.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 106. Piece of chain in the Medicean Library, of the actual size.]

The ironwork by which these chains are attached to the desk is somewhat complicated. By the kindness of the librarian, Signor Guido Biagi, I have been allowed to study it at my leisure, and to draw a diagrammatic sketch (fig. 107) which I hope will make it clear to my readers. The lock is sunk in the central support of the desk. The bar pa.s.ses through a ring on each side of this support, and also through a ring near each end of the desk.

These rings are fixed to the lower edge of the desk just under the molding. A flat piece of iron is forged on to the bar near the centre.

This iron is pierced near the key-hole with an oblong slit through which pa.s.ses a moveable piece of iron, here shewn in outline of its actual size (fig. 108). The bolt of the lock pa.s.ses through a hole in this piece, and holds the bar firmly in its place.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 107. Diagram to explain the ironwork at the Medicean Library.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 108. Outline of bolt forming part of ironwork.]

The bar is not quite so long as the desk; consequently, when it has been unlocked, and the iron bolt sketched above withdrawn, it can be turned round by taking hold of the central iron, and pushed to the right or to the left, past the terminal rings. The chains can then be readily unstrung, or another strung upon the bar.

In the next chapter I shall describe the changes in Library arrangements adopted during the period which succeeded the Middle Ages; but, before ending this present chapter, there are a few points affecting the older libraries and their organization to which I should like to draw attention.

In the first place all medieval libraries were practically public. I do not mean that strangers were let in, but even in those of the monasteries, books were let out on the deposit of a sufficient caution; and in Houses such as S. Victor and S. Germain des Pres, Paris, and at the Cathedral of Rouen, the collections were open to readers on certain days in the week.

The Papal library and those at Urbino and Florence were also public; and even at Oxford and Cambridge there was practically no objection to lending books on good security. Secular corporations followed the example set by the Church, and lent their ma.n.u.scripts, but only on security. A very remarkable example of this practice is afforded by the transaction between the ecole de Medecine, Paris, and Louis XI. The king wanted their copy of a certain work on medicine; they declined to lend it unless he deposited 12 marks worth of plate and 100 gold crowns. This he agreed to do; the book was borrowed; duly copied, and 24 January, 1472, restored to the Medical Faculty, who in their turn sent back the deposit to the king[423].

As a general rule, these libraries were divided into the lending library and the library of reference. These two parts of the collection have different names given to them. In the Vatican Library of Sixtus IV. we find the common library (_Bibliotheca communis_) or public library (_B.

publica_), and the reserved library (_B. secreta_). The same terms were used at a.s.sisi. At Santa Maria Novella, Florence, there was the library, and the lesser library (_B. minor_). In the University Library, Cambridge, there was "the public library" which contained the more ordinary books and was open to everybody, and "the private library" where the more valuable books were kept and to which only a few privileged persons were admitted[424]. At Queens' College, in the same university, the books which might be lent (_libri distribuendi_) were kept in a separate room from those which were chained to the shelves (_libri concatenati_), and at King's College there was a public library (_B. magna_) and a lesser library (_B. minor_). In short, in every large collection some such division was made, either structural, or by means of a separate catalogue[425].

I have shewn that two systems of bookcases, which I have called lectern-system and stall-system, were used in these libraries; but, as both these have been copiously ill.u.s.trated, I need say no more on that part of the subject. Elaborate catalogues, of which I have given a few specimens, enabled readers to find what they wanted in the shortest possible time, and globes, maps, and astronomical instruments provided them with further a.s.sistance in their studies. Moreover in some places the library served the purpose of a museum, and curiosities of various kinds were stored up in it.

No picture of a medieval library can be complete unless it be remembered that in many cases beauty was no less an object than utility. The bookcases were fine specimens of carpentry-work, carved and decorated; the pavement was of encaustic tiles worked in patterns; the walls were decorated with plaster-work in relief; the windows were filled with stained gla.s.s; and the roof-timbers were ornamented with the coat-armour of benefactors.

Of these embellishments the most distinctive was the gla.s.s. At St Albans the twelve windows contained figures ill.u.s.trating the subjects of the books placed near them. For instance, the second window represented Rhetoric and Poetry; and the figures selected were those of Cicero, Sall.u.s.t, Musaeus, Orpheus. Appropriate verses were inscribed beneath each.

The whole scheme recalls the library of Isidore, Bishop of Seville, which I have already described[426]. In the library of Jesus College, Cambridge, each light contains a c.o.c.k standing on a globe, the emblem of Bishop Alc.o.c.k the founder, with a label in his beak bearing a suitable text, and under his feet an inscription containing half the designation required. For instance, the first two bookcases contained works on Physic, and in the window is the word PHI-SICA divided between the two lights[427]. In Election Hall at Eton College--a room originally intended for a library--we find the Cla.s.ses of Civil Law, Criminal and Canon Law, Medicine, etc., ill.u.s.trated by medallions shewing a church council, an execution, a physician and his patient, and the like[428]. At the Sorbonne, Paris, the 38 windows of the library were filled with the portraits of those who had conferred special benefits on the college[429]; at Froidmont[430] near Beauvais the authors of the _Voyage Litteraire_ remark the beautiful stained gla.s.s in the library: and in Bishop Cobham's library at Oxford, according to Hearne, there "was brave painted gla.s.s containing the arms of the benefactors, which painted gla.s.s continued till the times of the late rebellion[431]."

Lastly, I will collect the different terms used to designate medieval bookcases. They are--arranged alphabetically--_a.n.a.logium_, _bancus_ or _banca_, _descus_, _gradus_, _stallum_, _stalla_, _stallus_ or _staulum_, and _sedile_. I have sometimes thought that it would be possible to determine the form of the bookcase from the word used to describe it; but increased study has convinced me that this is impossible, and that the words were used quite loosely. For instance, _bancus_ designates the cases in the Vatican Library which represent a variety of the lectern-system; and its French equivalent _banc_ the cases at Clairvaux which were stalls with four shelves apiece. Again "desk" (_descus_) is used interchangeably with "stall" (_stallum_) in a catalogue of the University Library, Cambridge, dated 1473, to designate what I strongly suspect were lecterns; in 1693 by Bishop Hacket when describing the stalls which Dean Williams gave to the library at Westminster Abbey[432]: and in 1695 by Sir C. Wren to describe bookcases which were partly set against the walls, partly at right-angles to them.

It has been already shewn that _gradus_ means a shelf, or a lectern, or a side of a lectern[433]; and _sedile_ is obviously only the Latin equivalent for "seat," which was sometimes used, as at S. John's College, Cambridge, in 1623[434], to designate a bookcase. It was also used at Christ Church, Canterbury, for what I have shewn to be a stall with four shelves[435]. The word _a.n.a.logium_ was used in France to signify a lectern[436]. The word "cla.s.s" (_cla.s.sis_) is used at the University Library, Cambridge, in 1584, instead of the ancient "stall," and afterwards superseded it entirely. For instance, when a Syndicate was appointed in 1713 to provide accommodation for Bishop Moore's Library, the bookcases are described as _Thecae sive quas vocant cla.s.ses_. Gradually the term was extended until it reached its modern signification, namely, the shelves under a given window together with those on the sides of the bookcases to the right and left of the spectator facing it[437].

We sometimes meet with the word _distinctio_. For instance, an Apocalypse in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, which once belonged to St Augustine's College, Canterbury, is noted as having stood "_distinctione prima gradu tertio_"; and the same word is used in the introduction to the catalogue of Dover Priory to signify what I am compelled to decide was a bookcase. The word _demonstratio_, on the other hand, which occurs at the head of the catalogue of the library of Christ Church, Canterbury, made between 1285 and 1331, probably denotes a division of subject, and not a piece of furniture.

Until the lectern-system had gone out of fas.h.i.+on, a word to denote a shelf was not needed. When shelves had to be referred to, _textus_[438] was used at Canterbury, and _linea_[439] at Citeaux. On the other hand, at Saint Ouen at Rouen, this word indicates a row of bookcases, probably lecterns.

In a record of loans[440] from that library in 1372 and following years, the books borrowed are set down as follows (to quote a few typical instances):

Item, digestum novum, linea I, E, II.

Item, liber de regulis fidei, c.u.m aliis, linea III, L, VIII.

Item, Tulius de officiis, linea II a parte sinistra, D, II.

These extracts will be sufficient to shew that the cases were arranged in three double rows, each double row being called a _linea_. Each lectern was marked with a letter of the alphabet, and each book with the number of the row, the letter of the lectern to which it belonged, and its number on the lectern. Thus, to take the first of the above entries, the Digest was to be found in the first row, on lectern E, and was the second volume on the said lectern. It is evident that there was a row of lecterns on each side of a central alley or pa.s.sage, and that a book was to be found on the right hand, unless the left hand was specially designated.

A catalogue has been preserved of the books in the castle of p.e.n.i.scola on the east coast of Spain, when the anti-pope Benedict XIII. retired there in 1415. They were kept in presses (_armaria_), each of which was subdivided into a certain number of compartments (_domuncule_), each of which again contained two shelves (_ordines_)[441]. I suggest that this piece of furniture resembled, on a large scale, Le Chartrier de Bayeux, which I have already figured (fig. 26).

In conclusion, I will quote a pa.s.sage in which the word library designates a bookcase. It occurs in an inventory of the goods in the church of S.

Christopher le Stocks, London, made in 1488:

On the south side of the vestrarie standeth a grete library with ij longe lecturnalles theron to ley on the bokes[442].

I need hardly remind my readers that the French word _bibliotheque_ has the same double meaning.

FOOTNOTES:

[356] Catalogus Codic.u.m Ma.n.u.scriptorum Malastestianae Caesenatis bibliothecae fratrum minorum fidei custodiaeque concreditae.... Auctore Josepho Maria Mucciolo ejusdem ordinis fratre et Ravennatis coen.o.bii alumno. 2 vols.

fol. Caesenae, 1780-84.

[357] These measurements were taken by myself, with a tape, in September, 1895.

[358] The desk bearing a single volume shewn on this seat (fig. 93) is modern.

[359] These measurements were taken by myself with a tape, in April 1898, and verified in April 1899.

[360] This catalogue is in the State Archives at Modena.

[361] I visited Monte Oliveto 19 April, 1899.