more, if a larger sum can be obtained for them, for the purpose of
purchasing an annual rent-charge of sixty shillings, to be paid to a
chaplain, who is to pray for the soul of the aforesaid Thomas Cobham, and
other benefactors; and who is to take charge of the books given by him and
them, and of all other books heretofore given, or hereafter to be given,
to the University[306]. The passing of this statute may probably be
regarded as the first institution of the office of University Librarian.
Notwithstanding this statute, however, the University did not obtain
peaceful possession of their library until 1410, when the controversy was
finally extinguished by the good offices of their Chancellor, Richard
Courtenay[307].

[Illustration: Fig. 49. Long Section of Old Congregation House and
Library, Oxford, looking south.

From _The Church of S. Mary the Virgin, Oxford_, by T. G. Jackson,
Architect.]

As a type of a collegiate library I will select the old library of Queens'
College, Cambridge. This room, on the first floor of the north side of the
quadrangle, forms part of the buildings erected in 1448. It is 44 ft. long
by 20 ft. wide (fig. 50), and is lighted by eleven windows, each of two
lights, six of which are in the south wall and five in the north wall. The
windows in the south wall have lost their cusps, but they are retained in
those in the north wall--and the library has in all points suffered less
from modern interference than almost any other with which I am acquainted.
The bookcases have been altered and patched more than once, in order to
provide additional shelf-room; but at the bottom of the more modern
superstructure part at least of the original medieval desk may be
detected. If this fragment be carefully examined it will be found that
there is on the inside of each end of the bookcase a groove which
evidently once supported a desk 6 ft. 6 in. long, and of a height
convenient for a seated reader to use[308] (fig. 51). The books lay on
their sides on this desk, to which they were chained in a way that I shall
explain directly, and a bench for the reader was placed between each pair
of desks. In the plan (fig. 50) I have added the half-desk which once
stood against the west wall; and I have lettered all the desks according
to the catalogue made in 1472 by Andrew Docket, the first President.

[Illustration: Fig. 50. Ground-plan of the Library at Queens' College,
Cambridge.]

[Illustration: Fig. 51. Eleva