The catalogue of the House of the White Canons at Titchfield in Hampshire, dated 1400, shows that the books were kept in a small room, on shelves called _columpnæ_, and set against the walls. A closet of this kind was evidently not a working place, but simply a place of storage. By the beginning of the fifteenth century, the larger monasteries had accumulated many hundred volumes, and it began to be customary to provide for the collections separate quarters, rooms constructed for the purpose. The presses in the cloisters were still utilised for books in daily reference. In Christ Church, Canterbury, where as early as the fourteenth century, the collection comprised as many as 698 books, a library at Durham was built about 1425 by Archbishop Chichele: the library at Durham was built about the same time by Prior Wessyngton. That at Citeaux, which was placed over the _scriptorium_, dates from 1480, and that of St. Germain des Prés from 1513. The collection of the latter foundation was one of the earliest in France, and as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century, there is record of its being consulted by strangers. At the time of the French Revolution, it contained 7000 manuscripts and 4900 printed books.[218] The Queen of Sicily, who in 1517 visited Clairvaux, one of the two great Cistercian foundations in France, describes the library as follows: “On the same side of the cloister are fourteen studies, where the monks do their reading and writing, and over these studies, one mounts by a broad spiral staircase to the new library. This library is 189 feet long by 17 feet wide. It contains 48 seats (_bancs_) and in each banc four shelves (_poulpitres_) furnished with books on all subjects, but chiefly theology; the greater number of the said books are of vellum and are written by hand, richly storied and illuminated.” The phrase “written by hand,” indicates that the Queen was already acquainted with books produced from type, some of which had in fact been produced in Italy as early as 1464. Another description, written in 1723 by the author of the _Voyage Littéraire_, speaks of “the fifteen little cells, all in a row, where the Brethren formerly used to write books, for which reason they are still called the writing rooms. Over these cells is the library, the building for which is large, vaulted, well lighted, and stocked with a large number of manuscripts, fastened by chains to desks; but there are not many printed books.”