Medieval Libraries and Manuscripts

Another device for combining desk with shelf is to be seen at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and, as these cases were set up after 1626, we have here a curious instance of a deliberate return to ancient forms. There is evidence that there once existed below the shelf a second desk, which could be drawn in and out as required, so that a reader could stand or sit as he pleased, as you will see from the next illustration.

The University of Leiden in Holland adopted a modification of this design, for there the shelf[Pg 45] is above the desk, and readers could only stand to use the books (fig. 5).

• Introduction: The Medieval Library
  
  
• Book Presses
  
  
• Private Libraries in the Middle Ages
  
  
• The Library at the Sorbonne
  
  
• Book Carrels
  
  
• Monastary Libraries
  

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