which are 10 in number, there were paid, as entered above, 130 ducats; for the rest there were paid 170 ducats, making a total of 300 ducats, and so he has been paid in full for all the desks, this 7th day of June, 1476[1].
We shall see presently that these twenty-five desks make up the number required, on the evidence of the catalogues, for the Greek and Latin Libraries taken together; for, as has been already mentioned, these two rooms are often described in the Accounts as one room, and are called simply the Library.
In 1477 the furniture for the next room, the Bibliotheca secreta or Inner Library, was begun. The work was entrusted to a Florentine, called in the Accounts merely Magister Joanninus faber lignarius de Florentia, but identified by M. Fabre with Giovannino dei Dolci, one of the builders of the Sistine chapel. The most important entry referring to him is the following:
The last payment on this account was made 18 March, 1478; on which day he also received eight ducats for three frames "to contain the names of the books," and for some
- ↑ Item solvi eidem ducatos xxx pro reliquo xxv banchorum bibliothecæ: pro longioribus autem qui sunt x solvebantur centum et triginta, ut supra scriptum est; pro reliquis solvebantur centum et septuaginta; quæ summa est tricentorum ducatorum: atque ita pro banchis omnibus ei satisfactum est, die vii Junii 1476. Müntz, p. 126. The rest of the money had been paid to him by instalments between 15 July, 1475, and this date.
- ↑ Magister Joanninus faber lignarius de Florentia habuit a me Platyna s. d. n. bibliothecario pro fabrica banchorum Bibliothecæ secretæ, pro Armario magno et Spaleria ejusdem loci, quæ omnia extimata fuerunt centum et octuaginta ducat' a magistro Francisco de Mediolano; habuit, ut præfertur, ducatos sexaginta quinque et bononenos sexaginta die vii maii 1477. Müntz, p. 130. There were 100 bononeni in each ducat.
