es the desks, there are other pieces of furniture
to be accounted for. We will therefore go through the rooms in order with
the ground-plan (fig. 98). On this plan the cases are coloured gray, the
readers' seats are indicated by transverse lines, and the intervals are
left white.

_Latin Library._ The Accounts tell us that there were 10 seats on the left
hand of the Latin Library, and that these were longer than the rest,
measuring 38 palms each, or about 27 ft. 9 in. English[400].

As the distance from the central pier to the west wall is just 27 ft. 6
in., it is obvious that the cases must have stood north and south--an
arrangement which is also convenient for readers, as the light would fall
on them from the left hand. For this reason I have placed the first desk
against the pier, the reader's seat being westward of it. A difficulty
now arises. It is stated in the Accounts that _ten banchi_ are paid for,
but all the catalogues mention only _nine_. I suggest that the explanation
is to be found in the fact that ten pieces of furniture do occur between
the pier and the wall, the first of which is a shelf and desk, and the
last a seat only. This arrangement is to be seen at Cesena and in the
Medicean Library at Florence. The room being 34 ft. 8 in. wide, space is
left for a passage along the south wall to the door (_a_) of the
Librarian's room, and also for another along the opposite ends of the
desks.

For the arrangement of the rest of the Library, the Accounts give a most
important piece of information. They tell us that the whole of the seats
for the Common Library, i.e. the Latin and Greek Libraries taken together,
25 in number, cost 300 ducats, of which sum the 10 long seats above
mentioned absorbed 130 ducats, leaving 170 to pay for the remaining 15.
From these data it is not difficult to calculate the cost of each palm,
and from that the number of palms that 170 ducats would buy. I make this
to be 510 palms, or about 373 feet[401].

It is, I think, obvious that there must have been some sort of vestibule
just inside the door of entrance, where students could be received, and
where they could consult the catalogue or the Librarian. Further, the
catalogues shew that the seven desks arranged in this part of the Library
were in all probability shorter than those of the opposite side, for they
contained fewer volumes. If we allow each of them 21 ft. 4 in. in length,
we shall dispose of 149 ft., which leaves 224 ft.