, commonly
called Christ's Hospital.

From Trollope's History.]

The Franciscan House in London, commonly called Christ's Hospital, had a
noble library, founded 21 October, 1421, by Sir Richard Whittington,
mercer and Lord Mayor of London. By Christmas Day in the following year
the building was roofed in; and before three years were over it was
floored, plastered, glazed, furnished with desks and wainscot, and stocked
with books. The cost was L556. 16_s._ 8_d._; of which L400 was paid by
Whittington, and the rest by Thomas Wynchelsey, one of the brethren, and
his friends[230]. It extended over the whole of one alley of the cloister
(fig. 32). Stow tells us that it was 129 ft. long, by 31 ft. broad[231];
and, according to the letters patent of Henry VIII., dated 13 January,
1547, by which the site was conveyed to the City of London, it contained
"28 Desks and 28 Double Settles of Wainscot[232]."

I have recounted the expedients to which the monks of Citeaux were reduced
when their books had become too numerous for the cloister. I will now
describe their permanent library. This is shewn in the bird's-eye view
dated 1674 to which I have already referred, and also in a second similar
view, dated 1718, preserved in the archives of the town of Dijon[233],
where I had the good fortune to discover it in 1894. It is accompanied by
a plan of the whole monastery, and also by a special plan[234] of the
library (fig. 35). The buildings had by this time been a good deal
altered, and partly rebuilt in the classical style of the late
renaissance; but in these changes the library had been respected. I
reproduce (fig. 33) the portion of the view containing it and the
adjoining structures, together with the corresponding ground-plan (fig.
34).

The authors of the _Voyage Litteraire_, Fathers Martene and Durand, who
visited Citeaux in 1710, thus describe this library:

Citeaux sent sa grande maison et son chef d'ordre. Tout
y est grand, beau et magnifique, mais d'une magnificence
qui ne blesse point la simplicite religieuse....

[Illustration: Fig. 33. Bird's-eye view of part of the Monastery of
Citeaux. From a drawing dated 1718. A, library; B, farmery.]

Les trois cloitres sont proportionnez au reste des
batimens. Dans l'un de ces cloitres on voit de petites
cellules comme a Clervaux, qu'on appelle les ecritoires,
parce que les anciens moines y ecrivoient des livres. La
bibliotheque est au dessus;