many as 600--and then
prepared for use. All other materials, as gold, colours, varnish, nails,
horn, clasps, etc., were bought in detail, when required; and probably
used in some room adjoining the library. Platina also saw to the
illumination (_miniatio_) of such MSS. as required it.

Comfort and cleanliness were not forgotten. There are numerous charges for
coals, with an amusing apology for their use in winter "because the place
was so cold"; and for juniper to fumigate (_ad suffumigandum_). Brooms are
bought to clean the library, and fox-tails to dust the books (_ad
tergendos libros_[417]).

It should further be mentioned that Sixtus assigned an annual income to
the library by a brief dated 15th July, 1477. It is therein stipulated
that the fees, paid according to custom by all officials appointed to any
office vacated by resignation, should thenceforward be transferred to the
account of the library[418].

While Sixtus IV. was thus engaged in Rome, a rival collector, Federigo da
Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino (1444--1482), was devoting such leisure as he
could snatch from warfare to similar pursuits. The room in which he stored
his treasures is practically unaltered. It differs materially in
arrangement from the other libraries of the same period. This difference
is perhaps due to its position in a residence which was half palace, half
castle. It is on the ground floor of a building which separates the inner
from the outer court. It measures 45 ft. in length, by 20 ft. 9 in. in
width. The walls are about 14 ft. high to the spring of the barrel-vault
which covers the whole space. There are two large windows at the north end
of the room, and one at the south end. These are about 7 ft. from the
ground. The original entrance was through a door into the inner court, now
blocked. In the centre of the vault is a large eagle in relief with F.D.
on each side of its head; round it is a wreath of cherubs' heads: and
outside of all a broad band of flames and rays. The vault is further
decorated with isolated flames, gilt, on a white ground[419].

The books are said to have occupied eight presses, or sets of shelves, set
against the east and west walls, but our information on the subject of the
fittings is provokingly meagre. It is chiefly contained in the following
passage of a description written by Bernardino Baldi, and dated 10 June,
1587. Baldi, as a native of Urbino, and in later life attached to the
service of the Duke, m