possible to
determine the form of the bookcase from the word used to describe it; but
increased study has convinced me that this is impossible, and that the
words were used quite loosely. For instance, _bancus_ designates the cases
in the Vatican Library which represent a variety of the lectern-system;
and its French equivalent _banc_ the cases at Clairvaux which were stalls
with four shelves apiece. Again "desk" (_descus_) is used interchangeably
with "stall" (_stallum_) in a catalogue of the University Library,
Cambridge, dated 1473, to designate what I strongly suspect were lecterns;
in 1693 by Bishop Hacket when describing the stalls which Dean Williams
gave to the library at Westminster Abbey[432]: and in 1695 by Sir C. Wren
to describe bookcases which were partly set against the walls, partly at
right-angles to them.

It has been already shewn that _gradus_ means a shelf, or a lectern, or a
side of a lectern[433]; and _sedile_ is obviously only the Latin
equivalent for "seat," which was sometimes used, as at S. John's College,
Cambridge, in 1623[434], to designate a bookcase. It was also used at
Christ Church, Canterbury, for what I have shewn to be a stall with four
shelves[435]. The word _analogium_ was used in France to signify a
lectern[436]. The word "class" (_classis_) is used at the University
Library, Cambridge, in 1584, instead of the ancient "stall," and
afterwards superseded it entirely. For instance, when a Syndicate was
appointed in 1713 to provide accommodation for Bishop Moore's Library, the
bookcases are described as _Thecae sive quas vocant classes_. Gradually the
term was extended until it reached its modern signification, namely, the
shelves under a given window together with those on the sides of the
bookcases to the right and left of the spectator facing it[437].

We sometimes meet with the word _distinctio_. For instance, an Apocalypse
in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, which once belonged
to St Augustine's College, Canterbury, is noted as having stood
"_distinctione prima gradu tertio_"; and the same word is used in the
introduction to the catalogue of Dover Priory to signify what I am
compelled to decide was a bookcase. The word _demonstratio_, on the other
hand, which occurs at the head of the catalogue of the library of Christ
Church, Canterbury, made between 1285 and 1331, probably denotes a
division of subject, and not a piece of furniture.

Until the lectern-system