Medieval Libraries and Manuscripts

Fig. 5. Bookcases in the library of the University of Leiden: from a print by J.C. Woudanus, dated 1610. (Lent by the Syndics of the University Press.)

An arrangement analogous to this was adopted at Citeaux, as we may gather from the catalogue, drawn up in 1480. I will not trouble[Pg 46] you with details, but merely say that there was evidently a shelf below the desk as well as one above it. The cases therefore resembled those at Leiden, with this difference; and they were also probably of such a height that a reader could conveniently sit at them.

• 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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