Bookcases at west end of south side of Library
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On the continent, where elaborate bindings came early into fashion, sometimes protected by equally elaborate bosses at their corners, it would have been impossible to arrange the volumes as we did side by side on the shelves. It therefore became the fashion to place a shelf below the desk, and to lay the books upon it on their sides. The earliest library fitted in this manner that I have been able to discover is at Cesena in North Italy. It was built in 1452, by Domenico Malatesta Novello, for the convent of S. Francesco. It is possible, therefore, that the parent house of S. Francesco at Assisi, which had a large library, divided, so early as 1381, into a Libreria publica and a Libreria secreta, had similar bookcases. I am going to shew you the cases, and a single book with its chain.
You will observe that the seats for the reader are no longer independent, but are combined with the bookcase.
- Author
- Libraries in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods
The Rede Lecture Delivered June 13, 1894
J.W. Clark
Available from gutenberg.org as a free download - Posted on
- Tuesday 3 March 2020
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