8vo. Reims, 1891, p.
14.

[517] Franklin, _Anc. Bibl. de Paris_, Vol. I. pp. 71-99. He gives a view
of the interior of the library from a print dated 1773.

[518] See above, p. 114.

[519] Franklin, _ut supra_, I. pp. 107-134.

[520] I visited Monte Cassino 13 April, 1898.

CHAPTER IX.

PRIVATE LIBRARIES. ABBAT SIMON AND HIS BOOK-CHEST. LIBRARY OF CHARLES V.
OF FRANCE. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THIS LIBRARY FROM ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS.
BOOK-LECTERN USED IN PRIVATE HOUSES. BOOK-DESKS REVOLVING ROUND A CENTRAL
SCREW. DESKS ATTACHED TO CHAIRS. WALL-CUPBOARDS. A SCHOLAR'S ROOM IN THE
FIFTEENTH CENTURY. STUDY OF THE DUKE OF URBINO. LIBRARY OF MONTAIGNE.
LIBRARY OF MARGARET OF AUSTRIA. CONCLUSION.

In the previous chapters I have sketched the history of library-fittings
from the earliest times to the end of the eighteenth century. The
libraries to which these fittings belonged were, for the most part,
public, or as good as public. But, as in history we have recognised the
important fact that a record of battles and sieges and enactments in
Parliament gives an imperfect conception of the life of a people, so I
should feel that this archeological subject had been insufficiently
treated if I made no attempt to shew how private scholars disposed their
books, or with what appliances they used them. For instance, in what sort
of chair was the author of the _Philobiblon_ sitting when he wrote the
last words of his treatise, 24 January, 1345, and how was his study in his
palace at Auckland furnished? Further, how were private students bestowed
in the fifteenth century, when a love of letters had become general?
Lastly, how were libraries fitted up for private use in the succeeding
century, when the great people of the earth, like the wealthy Romans of
imperial times, added the pursuit of literature to their other fashions,
and considered a library to be indispensable in their luxurious palaces?

In the hope of obtaining reliable information on these interesting
questions, I have for some years past let no opportunity slip of examining
illuminated manuscripts. I have gone through a large number in the British
Museum, where research is aided by an excellent list of the subjects
illustrated; in the _Bibliotheque Nationale_, Paris; and in the
_Bibliotheque Royale_, Brussels, where the manuscripts are for the most
part those which once belonged to the Dukes of Burgundy. I have been
somewhat disappointed in this search, for, with