itect
who built the room, he must have been a man of no ordinary originality.
Each piece of furniture consists of a desk to lay the books on when wanted
for use, a shelf for those not immediately required, and a seat for the
reader, whose comfort is considered by a gentle slope in the back (fig.
93). At the end next the central alley is a panel containing the heraldic
devices of the Malatesta family.

The principal dimensions of each case are as follows:

Length 10 ft. 2 1/2 in.
Height 4 ft. 2 1/4 in.
Width of seat 3 ft. 1 in.
Width of foot-rest 11 in.
Height 3 1/2 in.
Height of seat from ground 1 ft. 10 1/2 in.
Width 1 ft. 4 in.
Distance from desk to desk 4 ft. 1 in.
Angle of slope of desk 45 deg.

The books are still attached to the desks by chains. The bar which carries
them is in full view just under the ledge of the desk (fig. 94), inserted
into massive iron stanchions nailed to the underside of the desk. There
are four of these: one at each end of the desk, and one on each side of
the central standard. The bar is locked by means of a hasp attached to the
standard in which the lock is sunk.

The chains are of a novel form (fig. 95). Each link, about 2 1/4 in. long,
consists of a solid central portion, which looks as though it were cast
round a bent wire, the ends of which project beyond the solid part. The
chain is attached to the book by an iron hook screwed into the lower edge
of the right-hand board near the back.

[Illustration: Fig. 95. Piece of a chain, Cesena.]

[Illustration: Fig. 96. Chained book at Ghent.]

The volume which I figure next (fig. 96), entitled _Lumen animae seu liber
moralitatum_, was printed at Eichstaedt in Bavaria, in 1479. M. Ferd.
Vander Haeghen, librarian of Ghent, bought it in Hungary a few years
since, and gave it to the library which he so ably directs. The chain is
just 24 in. long. The links, of which there are ten, are slightly
different from any which I have figured, each link being compressed in the
middle so that the two sides touch each other. There is no ring, but a
link, rather larger than the rest, is passed round the bar. It will be
observed that the chain is fastened to the left-hand board, and not to the
right-hand board as in Italy. The presence of a title written on
parchment kept in place by strips of leather, a