The bookcases (fig. 122), from the original library in the Palais Mazarin, were placed round the new room. At first they terminated with the cornice, surmounted by the balustrade which protected the gallery mentioned above, and the roof was arched. In 1739, when additional shelf-room was required, and the roof was in need of repair, it was agreed to construct the present flat ceiling, and to gain thereby wall-space of sufficient height to accommodate 20,000 additional books. The gallery thus formed is approached by two staircases constructed at the same time[503]. If the elevation of these cases (fig. 123) be compared with that of the cases in the Escorial (fig. 119), I feel sure that my readers will agree with me in admitting that the French example was copied from the Spanish. The general arrangement is the same, and especially the really distinctive features, namely, the division by columns, and the presence of a desk. It will be observed that the French example is the larger of the two, being 18 ft. high from the floor to the top of the cornice. The desk, moreover, is 4 ft. from the floor, so that it was evidently intended to be used standing. I am aware that Naude, the librarian employed by Mazarin to collect books for him, did not visit Spain, nor was Mazarin himself ever in that country. There is therefore no evidence to connect his library with that of Philip II., but in justification of my theory I submit that the resemblance is too close to be accidental, and that in all probability the library at the Escorial had been much talked of in the world of letters. [Illustration: Fig. 123. Elevation of a bookcase and section of a desk in the Bibliotheque Mazarine, Paris.] The convenience of placing book-shelves against a wall was soon accepted in England, but at first in a somewhat half-hearted fashion. The earliest instance of this, so far as I know, is to be met with in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, where the first stone of the eastern wing was laid in 1610, and completed, with the fittings, in 1612[504]. [Illustration: Fig. 124. A portion of the bookcases set up in the eastern wing of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, built 1610-1612. From Loggan's _Oxonia Illustrata_, 1675.] Advantage was taken of the whole of the wall-space provided by this extension, and it was lined with a bookcase extending from floor to ceiling. In order to provide easy access to the upper shelves, a light gallery was provided, the pillars of which were utilised to support a seat for the readers, because, the books being still chained, desks and seats were indispensable. These cases still exist almost unaltered, but their appearance as first constructed has been preserved to us in Loggan's print, taken about 1675, part of which is here reproduced (fig. 124).