mon, Abbat of S. Albans (1167-1183), seated at
his book-chest.

From MSS. Cotton.]

The earliest information about the furniture of a medieval private library
that I have as yet discovered is contained in a fragment of an
account-book recording the cost of fitting up a tower in the Louvre in
1367 and 1368, to contain the books belonging to Charles V. of France.
Certain pieces of woodwork in the older library in the palace on the Isle
de la Cite are to be taken down and altered, and set up in the new room.
Two carpenters are paid (14 March, 1367) for "having taken to pieces all
the cases (_bancs_) and two wheels (_roes_), which were in the king's
library in the palace, and transported them to the Louvre with the desks
(_lettrins_), and the aforesaid wheels, each made smaller by a foot all
round; and for having put all together again, and hung up the desks
(_lettrins_) in the two upper stages of the tower that looks toward the
Falconry, to put the king's books in; and for having panelled the first of
those two stories all round on the inside with wood from 'Illande,' at a
total cost of fifty francs of gold. Next, because the seats were too old,
they were remade of new timber which the aforesaid carpenters brought.
Also [they were paid] for two strong doors for the said two stories 7 ft.
high, 3 ft. broad, and 3 fingers thick." In the following year (4 May,
1368), a wire-worker (_cagetier_) is paid "for having made trellises of
wire in front of two casements and two windows ... to keep out birds and
other beasts (_oyscaux et autres bestes_), by reason of, and protection
for, the books that shall be placed there." The ceiling is said to have
been panelled in cypress wood ornamented with carvings[524].

The "tower that looks toward the Falconry" mentioned in the above
description has been identified with the north-west tower of the old
Louvre. The rooms fitted up as a library were circular, and about 14 feet
in diameter[525].

The above description of a library will be best explained by an
illumination (fig. 135) contained in Boccacio's _Livre des cas des
malheureux nobles hommes et femmes_, written and illuminated in Flanders
for King Henry the Seventh, and now in the British Museum[526]. Two
gentlemen are studying at a revolving desk, which can be raised or lowered
by a central screw. This is evidently the "wheel" of the French King's
library. Behind are their books, either resting on a desk hung against the
wall, whic