Libraries -- History; Library architecture -- History; Library fittings and supplies -- History
At S. John Baptist's College the library was built in 1596, and we may
presume was fitted up soon afterwards, as Wood records numerous donations
of books in the years immediately succeeding, and the appointment of a
keeper to take charge of them in 1603[337]. This library, on the first
floor of the south side of the second quadrangle, is 112 feet long by 26
feet wide, with eight windows of two lights in each wall. The bookcases,
of which there are eight on each side between the windows, with a
half-case against the west wall, are rather larger than those at Corpus
Christi College, being 10 feet high, and 2 feet 6 inches wide. They have a
classical cornice and terminal pediment. The titles of the subjects are
painted at the tops of the stalls as at Merton College. A few traces of
chaining are still to be detected. The desks have not been altered. Each
is in two divisions, as at Corpus, separated by a central bracket, and it
has the slit to admit the chains. The long iron hinges are evidently
original. The seats resemble those at Corpus.
The bookcases at Trinity College, set up in 1618, and those at Jesus
College, made probably in 1679, call for no special remark.
Between 1598 and 1600 Sir Thomas Bodley refitted the library over the
Divinity School. This noble room is 86 feet long by 32 feet wide. These
dimensions contrast forcibly with those of the long narrow rooms to which
we have been accustomed; and it is probably on account of the great width
that the 10 windows on each side have two lights apiece. At right angles
to these walls, which face north and south, there are nine bookcases on a
side with a half-case at each end. Here again we find so close a
resemblance to the cases at Corpus Christi College, that a particular
description is unnecessary. It should be noted, however, that, as at S.
John's College, they had been made of a greater height (8 feet 4 inches)
in the first instance, so as to accommodate two shelves above that on the
level of the desk. These shelves are proved to be original by the
existence, at the juncture of the shelves with the upright divisions, of
the plates of iron which originally carried the sockets for the bar. The
rest of the ironwork has been removed, and it is difficult to detect
traces of its former existence, because modern shelves have been set
against the ends of the cases. The hole for the lowest bar, however,
remains in the same relative position as at Corpus Christi College; and,
as the ironwork for supporting the bars is identical with what still
remains there, it seems safe to conclude that no new principle was
introduced. The desks are modern, but the large and ornamental brackets
which support them are original, and the iron hooks (fig. 79) still remain
by which they were prevented from falling when turned up. The position of
these hooks shews that each desk was 19 inches broad. There were
originally seats between each pair of cases, as may be seen in Loggan's
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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