the substructions of the gallery which extends along the greater part of three sides of the Cortile di San Damaso, and were added by Julius II. (1503—1513); the small building which blocks the other window (ibid., G) is connected with the Galleria del Belvedere; and at the west end the Torre Borgia, built by Alexander VI. (1492—1503), takes away some of the light from the Latin Library.
The Latin Library, into which the door from the court opens directly, is a noble room, 58 ft. 9 in. long, 34 ft. 8 in. wide, and about 16 ft. high to the spring of the vault. In the centre is a square pier, which carries the four plain quadripartite vaults, probably of brick, covered with plaster. The room is at present lighted by two windows (B, C) in the north wall, and by another, of smaller size, above the door of entrance (A). That this latter window was inserted by Sixtus IV., is proved by the presence of his arms above it on a stone shield. This is probably the window "next the court" made in 1475. The windows in the north wall are about 8 ft. high by 5 ft. broad, and their cills are 7 ft. above the floor of the room. Further, there were two windows in the west wall (b, c) a little smaller than those in the north wall, and placed at a much lower level, only a few feet above the floor. These were blocked when the Torre Borgia was built, but their position can still be easily made out[1]. This room must have been admirably lighted in former days.
The room next to this, the Greek Library, is 28 ft. broad by 34 ft. 6 in. long. It is lighted by a window (fig. 2, D) in the north wall, of the same size as those of the Latin Library, and by another (ibid., E) a good deal smaller, opposite to it. This room was originally entered from the Latin Library by a door close to the north wall (d). But, in 1480, two large
- ↑ M. Fabre (without whose help I probably should not have observed these windows) says of them: "L'amorce de l'une d'elles (celle de gauche) est encore apparente; quant à la seconde les barreaux (inferriata) en étaient encore visibles du côté de la Torre Borgia (je le tiens d'un employé de la Floreria) avant qu'on eût construit, à l'intérieur de la Tour, le pilastre qui la cache, et qui fut établi sous Pie IX pour soutenir la salle de l'Immaculée Conception créée au second étage." Fabre, p. 460.
