had gone out of fashion, a word to denote a shelf
was not needed. When shelves had to be referred to, _textus_[438] was used
at Canterbury, and _linea_[439] at Citeaux. On the other hand, at Saint
Ouen at Rouen, this word indicates a row of bookcases, probably lecterns.
In a record of loans[440] from that library in 1372 and following years,
the books borrowed are set down as follows (to quote a few typical
instances):

Item, digestum novum, linea I, E, II.
Item, liber de regulis fidei, cum aliis, linea III, L, VIII.
Item, Tulius de officiis, linea II a parte sinistra, D, II.

These extracts will be sufficient to shew that the cases were arranged in
three double rows, each double row being called a _linea_. Each lectern
was marked with a letter of the alphabet, and each book with the number of
the row, the letter of the lectern to which it belonged, and its number on
the lectern. Thus, to take the first of the above entries, the Digest was
to be found in the first row, on lectern E, and was the second volume on
the said lectern. It is evident that there was a row of lecterns on each
side of a central alley or passage, and that a book was to be found on the
right hand, unless the left hand was specially designated.

A catalogue has been preserved of the books in the castle of Peniscola on
the east coast of Spain, when the anti-pope Benedict XIII. retired there
in 1415. They were kept in presses (_armaria_), each of which was
subdivided into a certain number of compartments (_domuncule_), each of
which again contained two shelves (_ordines_)[441]. I suggest that this
piece of furniture resembled, on a large scale, Le Chartrier de Bayeux,
which I have already figured (fig. 26).

In conclusion, I will quote a passage in which the word library designates
a bookcase. It occurs in an inventory of the goods in the church of S.
Christopher le Stocks, London, made in 1488:

On the south side of the vestrarie standeth a grete
library with ij longe lecturnalles theron to ley on the
bokes[442].

I need hardly remind my readers that the French word _bibliotheque_ has
the same double meaning.

FOOTNOTES:

[356] Catalogus Codicum Manuscriptorum Malastestianae Caesenatis bibliothecae
fratrum minorum fidei custodiaeque concreditae.... Auctore Josepho Maria
Mucciolo ejusdem ordinis fratre et Ravennatis coenobii alumno. 2 vols.
fol. Caesenae, 1780-84.

[357] These measurements were taken by myself, with a ta