Part 44 (1/2)
PRIVATE LIBRARIES. ABBAT SIMON AND HIS BOOK-CHEST. LIBRARY OF CHARLES V.
OF FRANCE. ILl.u.s.tRATIONS OF THIS LIBRARY FROM ILLUMINATED Ma.n.u.sCRIPTS.
BOOK-LECTERN USED IN PRIVATE HOUSES. BOOK-DESKS REVOLVING ROUND A CENTRAL SCREW. DESKS ATTACHED TO CHAIRS. WALL-CUPBOARDS. A SCHOLAR'S ROOM IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. STUDY OF THE DUKE OF URBINO. LIBRARY OF MONTAIGNE.
LIBRARY OF MARGARET OF AUSTRIA. CONCLUSION.
In the previous chapters I have sketched the history of library-fittings from the earliest times to the end of the eighteenth century. The libraries to which these fittings belonged were, for the most part, public, or as good as public. But, as in history we have recognised the important fact that a record of battles and sieges and enactments in Parliament gives an imperfect conception of the life of a people, so I should feel that this archeological subject had been insufficiently treated if I made no attempt to shew how private scholars disposed their books, or with what appliances they used them. For instance, in what sort of chair was the author of the _Philobiblon_ sitting when he wrote the last words of his treatise, 24 January, 1345, and how was his study in his palace at Auckland furnished? Further, how were private students bestowed in the fifteenth century, when a love of letters had become general?
Lastly, how were libraries fitted up for private use in the succeeding century, when the great people of the earth, like the wealthy Romans of imperial times, added the pursuit of literature to their other fas.h.i.+ons, and considered a library to be indispensable in their luxurious palaces?
In the hope of obtaining reliable information on these interesting questions, I have for some years past let no opportunity slip of examining illuminated ma.n.u.scripts. I have gone through a large number in the British Museum, where research is aided by an excellent list of the subjects ill.u.s.trated; in the _Bibliotheque Nationale_, Paris; and in the _Bibliotheque Royale_, Brussels, where the ma.n.u.scripts are for the most part those which once belonged to the Dukes of Burgundy. I have been somewhat disappointed in this search, for, with the single exception of the ill.u.s.tration from Boethius (fig. 63), I have not found any library, properly so called. This is no doubt strange, having regard to the great variety of scenes depicted. It must be remembered, however, that these are used for the most part to ill.u.s.trate some action that is going forward, for which a library would be a singularly inappropriate background. Single figures, on the other hand, are frequently shewn with their books about them, either reading or writing. Such ill.u.s.trations most frequently occur in _Books of Hours_, in representations of the Evangelists; or in portraits of S. Jerome, who is painted as a scholar at his desk surrounded by piles of books and papers; and I think we may safely take these as representations of ordinary scholars, because, by the beginning of the fifteenth century, when most of the pictures to which I refer were drawn, it had become the custom to surround even the most sacred personages with the attributes of common life.
In the twelfth century, when books were few, they were kept in chests, and the owners seem to have used the edge as a desk to lean their book on. My ill.u.s.tration (fig. 134) shews Simon, Abbat of S. Albans 1167-1183, seated in front of his book-chest[521]. The chest is set on a frame, so as to raise it to a convenient height; and the Abbat is seated on one of those folding wooden chairs which are not uncommon at the present day. Simon was a great collector of books: ”their number,” writes his chronicler, ”it would take too long to name; but those who desire to see them can find them in the painted aumbry in the church, placed as he specially directed against the tomb of Roger the hermit[522].”
Chests, as we have seen above at the Vatican library, were used for the permanent storage of books in the fifteenth century; and a book-chest frequently formed part of the travelling luggage of a king. For example, when Charles V. of France died, 16 September, 1380, at the Chateau de Beaute-sur-Marne, thirty-one volumes were found in his chamber ”in a chest resting on two supports, which chest is by the window, near the fireplace, and it has a double cover, and in one of the divisions of the said chest were the volumes that follow.” His son, Charles VI., kept the thirteen volumes which he carried about with him in a carved chest, within which was an inlaid box (_escrin marquete_) to contain the more precious books[523].
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 134. Simon, Abbat of S. Albans (1167-1183), seated at his book-chest.
From MSS. Cotton.]
The earliest information about the furniture of a medieval private library that I have as yet discovered is contained in a fragment of an account-book recording the cost of fitting up a tower in the Louvre in 1367 and 1368, to contain the books belonging to Charles V. of France.
Certain pieces of woodwork in the older library in the palace on the Isle de la Cite are to be taken down and altered, and set up in the new room.
Two carpenters are paid (14 March, 1367) for ”having taken to pieces all the cases (_bancs_) and two wheels (_roes_), which were in the king's library in the palace, and transported them to the Louvre with the desks (_lettrins_), and the aforesaid wheels, each made smaller by a foot all round; and for having put all together again, and hung up the desks (_lettrins_) in the two upper stages of the tower that looks toward the Falconry, to put the king's books in; and for having panelled the first of those two stories all round on the inside with wood from 'Illande,' at a total cost of fifty francs of gold. Next, because the seats were too old, they were remade of new timber which the aforesaid carpenters brought.
Also [they were paid] for two strong doors for the said two stories 7 ft.
high, 3 ft. broad, and 3 fingers thick.” In the following year (4 May, 1368), a wire-worker (_cagetier_) is paid ”for having made trellises of wire in front of two cas.e.m.e.nts and two windows ... to keep out birds and other beasts (_oyscaux et autres bestes_), by reason of, and protection for, the books that shall be placed there.” The ceiling is said to have been panelled in cypress wood ornamented with carvings[524].
The ”tower that looks toward the Falconry” mentioned in the above description has been identified with the north-west tower of the old Louvre. The rooms fitted up as a library were circular, and about 14 feet in diameter[525].
The above description of a library will be best explained by an illumination (fig. 135) contained in Boccacio's _Livre des cas des malheureux n.o.bles hommes et femmes_, written and illuminated in Flanders for King Henry the Seventh, and now in the British Museum[526]. Two gentlemen are studying at a revolving desk, which can be raised or lowered by a central screw. This is evidently the ”wheel” of the French King's library. Behind are their books, either resting on a desk hung against the wall, which is panelled, or lying on a shelf beneath the desk. This piece of furniture would be properly described either as a _banc_ or a _lettrin_. It should be noted that care has been taken to keep the wheel steady by supporting it on a solid base, beneath which are two strong cross-pieces of timber, which also serve as a foot-rest for the readers.
The books on the desk set against the wall are richly bound, with bosses of metal. Chaining was evidently not thought of, indeed I doubt if it was ever used in a private library. The window is glazed throughout. In other examples which I shall figure below we shall find a wire trellis used instead of gla.s.s for part at least of the window.
My next ill.u.s.tration (fig. 136), also Flemish, is of the same date, from a copy of the _Miroir historial_[527]. It represents a Carmelite monk, probably the author of the book, writing in his study. Behind him are three desks, one above the other, hung against the wall along two sides of the room, with books bound and ornamented as in the former picture, resting upon them, and beneath the lowest is a flat shelf or bench on which a book rests upon its side. The desk he is using is not uncommon in these ill.u.s.trations. It is fixed on a solid base, which is further strengthened, as in the example of the wheel-desk, by ma.s.sive planks, to guard against the slightest vibration; and it can be turned aside by means of a limb--apparently of iron--which is first vertical, then horizontal, then vertical again. The Carmelite holds in his left hand an instrument for keeping the page perfectly flat. This instrument has usually a sharp point with which any roughness on the page can be readily removed. The volume he is using is kept open by two strings, to each of which a weight is attached. Behind the desk, covered with a cloth, is a chest secured by two locks. On this stands an object which appears to be a large magnifying gla.s.s.
Sometimes the desk was carried round three sides of the room, with no curtain to keep off dust, and with no shelf beneath it. The ill.u.s.tration (fig. 137) is from a French translation of Valerius Maximus (1430-75) in the Harleian Collection[528].
I now pa.s.s to a series of pictures which ill.u.s.trate the daily life of a scholar or a writer who had few books, but who could live in a certain ease--allowing himself a chair and a desk. Of these desks there is an infinite variety, dictated, I imagine, by the fas.h.i.+on prevalent in particular places at particular times. I have tried to arrange them in groups.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 136. A Carmelite in his study.
From a MS. of _Le Miroir Historial_ in the British Museum.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 137. Three musicians in a library.
From a MS. of a French translation of _Valerius Maximus_, in the British Museum.]
In the first place the chair is usually a rather elaborate piece of furniture, with arms, a straight back, and, very frequently, a canopy. A cus.h.i.+on to sit upon is sometimes permitted, but, as a general rule, these chairs are dest.i.tute of stuffing, tapestry, or other device to conceal the material of which they are made. Occasionally the canopy is richly carved or painted in a pattern.
The commonest form of desk is a modification of the lectern-system. It consists of a double lectern, beneath which is a row of cupboards, or rather a shelf protected by several doors, one of which is always at the end of the piece of furniture. The triangular s.p.a.ce under the lectern is also used for books. This device is specially commended by Richard de Bury in the _Philobiblon_[529]. ”Moses,” says he, ”the gentlest of men, teaches us to make bookcases most neatly, wherein they may be protected from any injury: _Take_, he says, _this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your G.o.d_.” My ill.u.s.tration (fig. 138) is taken from an edition of the _s.h.i.+p of Fools_, printed at Basle by Nicolas Lamparter in 1507. In this example the desk with its cupboards stands on a plinth, and this again on a broad step. Both are probably introduced to ensure steadiness.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 138. A bibliomaniac at his desk.