download

568
MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
date from about 1600 (PL 123). The cases in Queen's College
library, Cambridge, show traces of having been converted
from lecterns, and there is documentary evidence to show that
Pembroke College library, Cambridge, was fitted with
lecterns until 1617. Apparently the only early surviving exx
ample ofthe style is the library ofthe Church ofSS. Peter and
Walburga at Zutphen, in the Netherlands.
Several excellent examples of the stall still system survive.
One of the finest is the west wing of the library of Merton
College, Oxford, the best example of a medieval library in
England (PL 124^). The bookcases, each with four shelves on
either side, are placed in the intervals between the windows.
On each side of a case are sloping counters, and between each
pair ofcases is a thick wooden bench. The building itselfdates
from 1378, but there is reason to believe that the bookcases are
ofthe late sixteenth century. Other good examples ofthe stallx
system are the libraries of Corpus Christi College (1517) and
St. John's (1596) at Oxford, and the Old Reading-room of
the Bodleian Library (1602).
Ofthe two great English university libraries that of Oxford
has priority offoundation, while that of Cambridge can claim
a longer continuous history. The university of Cambridge re^
ceived its first important gift ofbooks in 1424. Its earliest library
was on the first floor ofthe west side ofthe Schools' Quadrangle,
but the room seems to have been employed for the purpose for
no great length of time. The chief library (Libraria communis)
was built in 1470 on the south side of the Quadrangle; five
years later another library was erected on the east side by the
chancellor of the university, Archbishop Rotherham. This
smaller room was reserved for the archbishop's own library and
the more valuable books possessed by the university. In the
sixteenth century the fortunes ofthe library declined to such an
extent that the Libraria communis was disfurnished in 1547.
When, however, the university received large gifts of books
from Archbishop Parker and others towards the close of the
was restored to its former use.
century, the library
Some idea of the routine ofa medieval library may be gained