division six times that number, or 192. This estimate for each division will give a total of 960 volumes for the five divisions, a number slightly in excess of that mentioned in Platina's catalogue.
After allowing a space 5 ft. wide, in front of the press, there is plenty of room left for 6 desks, each 27 ft. long. The last seat, that on the west side next the passage leading to the end of the room, might be the spalliera, with its four coffers (capsæ) under the seat.
But the presence of a spalliera is not the only peculiarity in the furniture of this room. Platina's catalogue shews that, connected in some manner with each seat, were two coffers (capsæ). What are we to understand by this? M. Fabre considers that these capsæ were independent chests, placed at the end of each seat. I feel disposed to think that they formed part of the desks. They are described in the catalogue in precisely the same language as those of the spalliera, viz.
In prima capsa spaleræ
In prima capsa primi banchi,
and I am inclined to place them under the seats of the desks, which are left open both at Cesena and at Florence, but would have been equally convenient to readers had they been closed. I do not mean to suggest that two chests extended over the full length of each seat, but that chests were contrived under the seat, perhaps at each end of it, of the same length as those of the spalliera, each of which was 7 ft. long.
In favour of the other view I have to admit that room was evidently scarce in this part of the Library, for it has been shewn that a second, and in some cases a third, shelf was added to the desks as the number of volumes increased. It is possible, therefore, that they were shorter than I have drawn them, in order to leave room for a chest to stand at their ends. Further, there is a note at the end of the catalogue of 1512 which records the position and contents of some of the capsæ. I confess that I do not understand it, though I have bestowed much time and thought upon it, but I print it, in the hope
