,
however, the volumes were not arranged in the modern fashion. They were
either placed in piles upon their sides, or if upright, were ranged with
their backs to the wall and their edges outwards. The band of leather,
vellum or parchment which closed the book was often used for the
inscription of the title, which was thus on the fore-edge instead of on
the back. It was not until the invention of printing had greatly
cheapened books that it became the practice to write the title on the
back and place the edges inwards. Early bookcases were usually of oak,
which is still deemed to be the most appropriate wood for a stately
library. The oldest bookcases in England are those in the Bodleian
library at Oxford, which were placed in position in the last year or two
of the 16th century; in that library are the earliest extant examples of
shelved galleries over the flat wall-cases. Long ranges of book-shelves
are necessarily somewhat severe in appearance, and many attempts have
been made by means of carved cornices and pilasters to give them a more
_riant_ appearance--attempts which were never so successful as in the
hands of the great English cabinet-makers of the second half of the 18th
century.

Both Chippendale and Sheraton made or designed great numbers of
bookcases, mostly glazed with little lozenges encased in fret-work
frames often of great charm and elegance. The alluring grace of some of
Sheraton's satinwood bookcases has very rarely indeed been equalled. The
French cabinet-makers of the same period were also highly successful
with small ornamental cases. Mahogany, rosewood, satinwood and even
choicer exotic timbers were used; they were often inlaid with
marqueterie and mounted with chased and gilded bronze. Dwarf bookcases
were frequently finished with a slab of choice marble at the top. In the
great public libraries of the 20th century the bookcases are often of
iron, as in the British Museum where the shelves are covered with
cowhide, of steel, as in the library of Congress at Washington, or of
slate, as in the Fitzwilliam library at Cambridge. There are three
systems of arranging bookcases--flat against the wall; in "stacks" or
ranges parallel to each other with merely enough space between to allow
of the passage of a librarian; or in bays or alcoves where cases jut out
into the room at right angles to the wall-cases. The stack system is
suitable only for public libraries where economy of space is essential;
the b