find it copied, more or less exactly, in the south room of the
University Library (1649); at Jesus College (1663); at Gonville and Caius
College (1675); at Emmanuel College (1677); and at Pembroke College
(1690).

[Illustration: Fig. 112. Bookcases in the south room of the University
Library, Cambridge.]

The south room of the University Library, on the first floor, is 25 ft.
wide and was originally 67 ft. long. It was lighted by eight windows in
the north wall, and by nine windows in the south wall, each of two lights.
There was also a window of four lights in the east gable, as we learn from
Loggan's print, and probably a window in the west gable also[452]. It was
entered by a door, in the north-east corner, approached by a "vice," or
turret-stair. This door was fortunately left intact when the east building
was erected in 1755. The room has been but little altered, and still
preserves the beautiful roof, the contract for which is dated 25 June,
1466[453].

We do not know anything about the primitive fittings, but, having regard
to the fact that the spaces between the windows are barely two feet wide,
it is probable that they were lecterns. Moreover, a catalogue, dated 1473,
enumerates eight stalls on the north side each containing on an average 21
books, and nine on the south side, each containing 18 books[454]. These
numbers, compared with those mentioned above at Zutphen, indicate
lecterns.

In the next century this room was assigned to teaching purposes, and the
lecterns were either removed or destroyed. In 1645 the University
petitioned Parliament to put them in possession of Archbishop Bancroft's
library, which he, by will dated 28 October, 1610, had bequeathed to the
Public Library of the University of Cambridge, should certain other
provisions not be fulfilled. The request was granted, 15 February, 1647,
and the books arrived in 1649. The room in question, then used as the
Greek School, was ordered, 3 September, 1649, to be "fitted for the
disposeall of the said books" without delay. The existing cases were
supplied at once, for Fuller, writing in the following year, speaks of
them with commendation[455]. Their exact date is therefore known.

These cases (fig. 112) are 8 ft. high from the floor to the top of the
horizontal part of the cornice, and 22 in. broad. They have the central
pilaster; but the seat has been cut down to a step, which is interrupted
in the middle, so as to allow the central pilaster