es
which I described in the last chapter.

There is still in existence, on an upper floor in the Palazzo Barberini at
Rome, a library of this description, which has probably not been altered
in any way since it was fitted up by Cardinal Francesco Barberini about
1630. The room is 105 ft. long by 28 ft. broad, and is admirably lighted
by two windows in the south wall, and seven in the gallery. The shelves
are set round three sides of the room at a short distance from the wall,
so as to leave space for a gallery and the stairs to it. The cases are
divided into compartments by fluted Ionic columns 5 ft. high. These rest
upon a flat shelf 14 in. wide, beneath which are drawers for papers and a
row of folios. This part of the structure is 3 ft. high from the floor to
the base of the columns. Above the columns is a cornice, part of which is
utilized for books; and above this again is the gallery, where the
arrangement of the shelves is a repetition of what I have described in the
lower part of the room. Dwarf cases in a plainer style and of later date
are set along the sides and ends of the room. Upon these are desks for the
catalogue, a pair of globes, some astronomical instruments, and some
sepulchral urns found at Praeneste. The older woodwork in this library has
never been painted or varnished, and the whole aspect of the room is
singularly old-world and delightful.

[Illustration: Fig. 156 Dean Boys in his Library, 1622.]

Another instance is afforded by the sketch of the library of John Boys,
Dean of Canterbury, who died in 1625. It occurs on the title-page of his
works dated 1622, and I may add on his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral also.
He clung to ancient fashions so far as to set his books with their
fore-edge outwards, but in other respects his book-shelves are of a modern
type.

* * * * *

I have now reached the limit which I imposed upon myself when I began this
essay. But before I conclude let me say a few last words. I wish to point
out that collectors and builders in the Middle Ages did not guard their
manuscripts with jealous care merely because they had paid a high price to
have them written; they recognised what I may call the personal element in
them; they invested them with the senses and the feelings of human
beings; and bestowed them like guests whom they delighted to honour. No
one who reads the _Philobiblon_ can fail to see that every page of it is
pervaded by this se