Libraries -- History; Library architecture -- History; Library fittings and supplies -- History
We do not know anything about the primitive fittings, but, having regard
to the fact that the spaces between the windows are barely two feet wide,
it is probable that they were lecterns. Moreover, a catalogue, dated 1473,
enumerates eight stalls on the north side each containing on an average 21
books, and nine on the south side, each containing 18 books[454]. These
numbers, compared with those mentioned above at Zutphen, indicate
lecterns.
In the next century this room was assigned to teaching purposes, and the
lecterns were either removed or destroyed. In 1645 the University
petitioned Parliament to put them in possession of Archbishop Bancroft's
library, which he, by will dated 28 October, 1610, had bequeathed to the
Public Library of the University of Cambridge, should certain other
provisions not be fulfilled. The request was granted, 15 February, 1647,
and the books arrived in 1649. The room in question, then used as the
Greek School, was ordered, 3 September, 1649, to be "fitted for the
disposeall of the said books" without delay. The existing cases were
supplied at once, for Fuller, writing in the following year, speaks of
them with commendation[455]. Their exact date is therefore known.
These cases (fig. 112) are 8 ft. high from the floor to the top of the
horizontal part of the cornice, and 22 in. broad. They have the central
pilaster; but the seat has been cut down to a step, which is interrupted
in the middle, so as to allow the central pilaster to rise directly from
the ground. The wing, however, was too picturesque a feature to be
discarded, so it was placed at the end of the step, and carried up, by
means of a long slender prolongation, as far as the molding which
separates the two panels on the end of the stall.
These cases were exactly copied at Gonville and Caius College; and again
at Emmanuel College; but in both those examples the step is continuous. At
Jesus College the same type is maintained, with the central pilaster and
continuous step; but the work is extremely plain, and there is neither
wing nor pediment. At Pembroke College there is a further modification of
the type. The step disappears, and, instead of it, a plinth extends along
the whole length of the case. The wing, however, remains, as a survival of
the lost step, and helps to give dignity to the base of the standard,
which is surmounted by a semicircular pediment, beneath which is a band of
fruit and flowers in high relief[456].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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