each corner of the hall is a staircase, leading to a gallery, 2 ft. 6 in.
wide. The cases in this gallery are about 8 ft. 6 in. high. Above them
again is a frieze consisting of a series of portraits of saints in oblong
frames. The roof is a barrel-vault, ornamented with plaster-work. Light is
admitted through two enormous semi-circular windows at each end of the
room. No alteration, I was informed when I visited the library in 1898,
has been permitted. Even the floor of plain tiles, with four tables (one
at each corner), and a central brazier, is left as the Cardinal arranged
it.

[Illustration: Fig. 120. Ground-plan of the Ambrosian Library at Milan.

Reduced from that given by P. P. Boscha.]

A good idea of the appearance of this noble room will be obtained from the
general view (fig. 121)[498]. The way in which the books were arranged
was evidently thought remarkable at the time, for a contemporary writer
says of it "the room is not blocked with desks to which the books are tied
with iron chains after the fashion of the libraries which are common in
monasteries, but it is surrounded with lofty shelves on which the books
are sorted according to size[499]."

This library was part of a larger scheme which included a college of
doctors, a school of art, a museum, and a botanic garden; all of which
were amply endowed. The library was to be open not merely to members of
the college, but to the citizens of Milan and all strangers who came to
study there; but the severest penalties awaited those who stole a volume,
or even touched it with soiled hands; and only the Pope himself could
absolve them from such crimes[500].

Before many years were over these novelties in library arrangement and
library administration found a ready welcome in France, where Cardinal
Mazarin was engaged in the formation of a vast collection of books
intended to surpass that of his predecessor Richelieu[501]. Even then his
library was public; all who chose to come might work in it on Thursdays
from 8 to 11 in the morning, and from 2 to 5 in the afternoon. At a later
period of his life, when he had removed to a palace now included in the
Bibliotheque Nationale, he was able to build a library in accordance with
his magnificent ideas. An accident of construction placed this room over
the stables, a conjunction which afforded endless amusement to the
pamphleteers of the time. It was finished at the end of 1647; and in the
following year the Cardinal