When books were first placed in a separate room, fastened with iron chains, for the use of the Fellows of a college or the monks of a convent, the piece of furniture used was, I take it, an elongated lectern or desk, of a convenient height for a seated reader to use. The books lay on their sides on the desk, and were attached by chains to a horizontal bar above it. There were at least two libraries in this University fitted with such desks, at the colleges of Pembroke and Queens'; and that it was a common form abroad is proved by its appearance in a French translation of the first book of the _Consolations of Philosophy_ of Boethius, which I lately found in the British Museum[1], executed towards the end of the fifteenth century (fig. 1). [Illustration: FIG. 1. Interior of a library: from a MS. of a French translation of the first book of the _Consolations of Philosophy_ of Boethius.] One example at least of these fittings still exists, in the library attached to the church of S. Wallberg, at Zutphen in Holland. This library was built in its present position in 1555, but I suspect that some of the fittings, those namely which are more richly ornamented, were removed from an earlier library. Each of these desks is 9 feet long by 5 feet 6 inches high; and, as you will see directly, a man can sit and read at them very conveniently. I shall shew you first a general view of part of the library (fig. 2); and, secondly, a single desk (fig. 3). Such cases as these must have been in use at the Sorbonne, where a library was first established in 1289 for books chained for the common convenience of the Fellows (_in communem sociorum utilitatem_). A description of this library, based probably on records now lost, has been given by Claude Hemere (Librarian 1638-1643) in his MS. history. This I proceed to translate: [Illustration: FIG. 3. Desk in the library at Zutphen: from a photograph.]