drawer.
Projecting from the top of the revolving desk, there is a vertical rod of
iron with a long horizontal arm. This is no doubt intended to carry a
lantern. I shall shortly give an example of one in such a position.

[Illustration: Fig. 141. Circular book-desk.

From a MS. of _Fais et Gestes du Roi Alexandre_, in the British Museum.]

[Illustration: Fig. 140. S. Jerome writing.

From an oil painting by Benedetto Bonfigli, in the Church of S. Peter at
Perugia.]

I now return to the wheel-desk, of which I have already figured one
specimen (fig. 135). A piece of furniture consisting of one or more tables
which could be raised or depressed by means of a central screw, was very
generally used by scholars in the Middle Ages. I shall present a few of
the most common forms.

[Illustration: Fig. 142. S. Luke writing his Gospel.

From the Dunois _Horae_, a MS. in the possession of H. Y. Thompson, Esq.]

My first specimen is from a manuscript in the British Museum, written and
illuminated in England in the middle of the fifteenth century. It is
called _Fais et Gestes du Roi Alexandre_[532]. The picture (fig. 141)
represents Alexander as a little child, standing in front of his tutor,
who is seated in one of the chairs I described above. On the learned man's
right is his book-desk. A circular table with a rim round it to prevent
the books falling off, is supported on a central pedestal, which contains
the screw. The top of the said screw is concealed by the little Gothic
turret in the centre of the table. This turret also supports the book
which the reader has in use.

[Illustration: Fig. 143. A lady seated in her chair reading.

From a MS. written in France, early in the fifteenth century.]

My next example is from a miniature in a volume of Hours known as the
Dunois _Horae_, also written in the middle of the fifteenth century. It has
been slightly enlarged in order to bring out the details more clearly. The
subject is S. Luke writing his Gospel, but the background represents a
scholar's room. There is a bookcase of a very modern type, a table with
two folio volumes lying upon it, and in the centre a hexagonal book-desk,
with a little Gothic turret as in the last example. Round the screw under
the table are four cylindrical supports, the use of which I fail to
understand, but they occur frequently on desks of this type. The whole
piece of furniture rests on a heavy cylindrical base, and that again on a
square plat