The catalogue drawn up by Zenobio Acciaioli, 12 October, 1518[1], offers no peculiarity except that in the Inner Library each seat is noted as having three rows of books, thus:
In primo bancho bibliothece parve secrete
Infra in secundo ordine
"tertio"
We may now proceed to arrange the Library in accordance with the information derived from the Accounts and the catalogues, compared with the ground-plan (fig. 2).
The authorities shew that in each of the rooms the books were arranged on what are called 'banchi,' or, as they would have been termed in England, 'desks' or 'seats,' which were fitted with bars, locks, and chains. These fittings prove that the Library must have been intended as a place to read in, not merely as a receptacle for books. A further proof of this is afforded by the lavish decoration of the ceiling and the windows.
At this point I must explain what is meant by the word banchus or seat. In England in the 15th century it meant a piece of furniture consisting of three stout planks set on end, and connected together by two or more shelves, to which the books were chained. A desk on which the reader could lay his book was attached to each side of this piece of furniture, and a bench on which he could sit stood between each pair of desks. Such bookcases are still to be seen in various places, as, for instance, at Corpus Christi College, and the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Their general arrangement will be understood from the sketch here appended (fig. 3).
South of the Alps a slightly different arrangement was adopted. The shelf for the books, and the desk and seat for the reader, were combined, and pieces of furniture were produced such as we can still see at Cesena where the library was fitted up by Malatesta in 1452, and at Florence, where the bookcases were designed by Michael Angelo about 1530. No one, however, can study the two sets carefully, without
- ↑ MS. Vat. 3948.
