apsis: et iis libris,
qui Graeci ex maxima parte, in scabellis parieti
adherentibus in intima ac penitissima Bibliothece parte
sunt positi. Deo Laudes et Gratias.

The increase between 1481 and 1512 in the number of volumes in the parts
of the Library defined in the above catalogue will be best understood from
the following table, which shews that 131 volumes had been added in 31
years.

1481 1512

Latin Library 743 817
Greek " 400 407
Bibliotheca secreta 190 222
" pontificia 259 277
---- ----
Total 1592 1723

Another catalogue, unfortunately without date[396], but which has every
appearance of belonging to the same period, notes the rooms as the
_Bibliotheca magna publica_, i.e. the Latin and Greek Libraries taken
together, the _Bibliotheca parva secreta_, and the _Bibliotheca magna
secreta_.

The catalogue drawn up by Zenobio Acciaioli, 12 October, 1518[397], offers
no peculiarity except that in the Inner Library each seat is noted as
having three rows of books, thus:

In primo bancho bibliothece parve secrete
Infra in secundo ordine
" tertio "

[Illustration: Fig 99. Interior of the Library of Sixtus IV., as shewn in
a fresco in the Ospedale di Santo Spirito, Rome.

From a photograph taken by Danesi.]

We may now proceed to arrange the Library in accordance with the
information derived from the Accounts and the catalogues, compared with
the ground-plan (fig. 98).

These authorities shew that in each of the rooms the books were arranged
on what are called _banchi_, or as they would have been termed in England,
desks, or seats, to which the books were attached by chains. It is
obvious, therefore, that there must have been also seats for readers. A
piece of furniture fulfilling these conditions and constructed twenty-five
years earlier, is still to be seen at Cesena, as I have just explained.
Further, I have examined a good many manuscripts now in the Vatican
Library which formed part of the older collection; and wherever the mark
of the chain has not been obliterated by rebinding, it is in the precise
position required for the above system.

If I am right in supposing that the cases at Cesena are a survival of what
was once in general use, we should expect to find another example of them
in the V