dispatch.

In the following spring (20 March 1480) it was decided to prolong the
library as far as the street; and in 1481 (18 September) to build the
beautiful stone gate surmounted by a screen in open-work through which the
court is now entered. This was completed by the end of 1482. The whole
structure had therefore occupied about five years in building.

The library, together with a building of older date next to the Cathedral
which serves as a sort of vestibule to it, occupies the west side of what
is still called, from the booksellers' shops which used to stand there,
_La Cour des Libraires_. The whole building measures 105 ft. in length, by
25 ft. in breadth. The library proper is lighted by six windows in the
east wall, and by two windows in the north wall. The masonry of the wall
under these windows and the two lancets by which it is pierced indicate
that advantage had been taken of an earlier building to form the
substructure of the library. The west wall must always have been blank.
Access to the library was obtained directly from the transept by means of
the beautiful stone staircase in two flights which Pontis built in 1479.
This staircase leads up to a door marked BIBLIOTHECA which opens into the
vestibule above mentioned. In 1788 a room was built over the library to
contain the archives of the church, and the staircase was then ingeniously
prolonged so as to reach the new second-floor.

Unfortunately the minutes of the Chapter tell us nothing about the
original fittings of this room[256]. In 1718 the books were kept in
cupboards protected by wire-work, over which were the portraits of
benefactors to the library[257].

At present the archives have disappeared; the few books that remain have
replaced them in the upper storey, and the library is used as a second
vestry. The illustration (fig. 47) shews the interior of the _Cour des
Libraires_, with the beautiful gate of entrance from the street. The
library occupies the first floor. Beneath are the arches under which the
shops used to be arranged; and above is the library of 1788.

[Illustration: Fig. 47. Interior of the _Cour des Libraires_, Rouen,
shewing the gate of entrance from the street, and the Library.]

FOOTNOTES:

[208] _Catalogi Bibliothecarum antiqui_; ed. G. Bekker, 8vo. 1885, pp.
24-28.

[209] _Ibid._, pp. 43-53.

[210] _Ibid._, pp. 64-73.

[211] _Ibid._ p. 82-120.

[212] _Catalogi Veteres Librorum Eccl. Cath. Dunelm._, ed. Sur