This description indicates desks similar to those of Zutphen. Even the height is the same.
A library which vividly recalls the above account, with 19 windows on one side and probably the same number on the other, was built in 1506 for the Collège de Navarre, Paris, now the École Polytechnique[326]. My illustration ([fig. 64]) is from a photograph taken shortly before its destruction in 1867. I have calculated that it was about 108 ft. long by 30 ft. wide.
The library of the Collège d'Autun, Paris, was similarly arranged. An inventory taken 29 July, 1462, records: "dix bancs doubles, à se seoir d'une part et d'autre, et ung poupitre; esquelz bancs et poupitre out esté trouvez enchaisnez les livres qui s'ensuyvent, qui sont intitulez sur la couverture d'iceulx[327]." The catalogue enumerates 174 volumes, or rather more than 17 for each "banc" or lectern. The expression bancs doubles is interesting, as it seems to imply that there were at that time libraries in which bancs simples were used; that is to say, lecterns with only one sloping surface instead of two.
A study of the catalogue drawn up in 1513 for the Augustinian House of S. Victor, Paris, by Claude de Grandrue, one of the monks, shews that the same system must have been in use there. Further, his catalogue is an excellent specimen of the pains taken in a large monastery to describe the books accurately, and to provide ready access to them. A brief prefatory note informs us that the desks are arranged in three rows, and marked with a triple series of letters. The first row is marked A, B, C, etc.; the second AA, BB, etc.; the third AAA, BBB, etc. To each of these letters are appended the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on, to shew the position of the required volume. For instance—to take one at random—Abælardi confessio is marked P. 13: that is, it is the thirteenth book on the desk in the first row marked P. When the catalogue proper—in which each manuscript is carefully described—was finished, the author increased its usefulness by the composition of an alphabetical index[328].
How, I shall be asked, can the form of the bookcase or desk (pulpitum) be inferred from this catalogue? I reply: In the first place, because there are no shelf-marks. The librarian notes the letter of the desk, and the place of each book on it, but nothing more. Secondly, because the number of manuscripts accommodated on each desk is so small. There are 50 desks, and 988 manuscripts—or, an average of little more than 19 to each. At Zutphen the average is exactly 18. This piece of evidence, however, is so important that I will give it in detail. The following table, compiled by myself from the catalogue, gives the letters used to mark the desks, and the number of manuscripts on each.
| A | 13 | AA | 13 | AAA | 15 |
| B | 21 | BB | 16 | BBB | 16 |
| C | 13 | CC | 19 | CCC | 17 |
| D | 18 | DD | 18 | DDD | 19 |
| E | 17 | EE | 21 | EEE | 17 |
| F | 20 | FF | 17 | FFF | 29 |
| G | 18 | GG | 18 | GGG | 24 |
| H | 16 | HH | 17 | HHH | 29 |
| I | 16 | II | 23 | III | 25 |
| K | 17 | KK | 21 | KKK | 29 |
| L | 22 | LL | 21 | LLL | 23 |
| M | 21 | MM | 20 | MMM | 26 |
| N | 18 | NN | 20 | —— | |
| O | 14 | OO | 13 | 269 | |
| P | 19 | PP | 23 | ||
| Q | 22 | 27 | |||
| R | 14 | RR | 26 | ||
| S | 14 | SS | 28 | ||
| T | 21 | TT | 24 | ||
| —— | —— | ||||
| 334 | 385 |
These totals give a general total of 988 manuscripts, which, divided by 50, makes the average number for each desk, as stated above, 19˙76.
Further, my theory is supported by the positive evidence of a description of this library (unfortunately without date) quoted by M. Delisle: "Les livres estoient couchez et enchaisnez, sur de longs pupitres, et une allée entre deux[329]." It is obvious that the English system of placing each lectern between a pair of windows could not have been maintained here.
At Queens' College, Cambridge, the catalogue, dated 1472, enumerates 192 volumes, divided over 10 desks and 4 half-desks, each called a step (gradus). There were (avoiding fractions) 8 books on each half-desk, and 15 on each complete desk; so that by comparing the plan ([fig. 50]) and elevation of a desk ([fig. 51]) with the views of the library at Zutphen, a good idea of a college library in the fifteenth century can be obtained.
Before I leave the lectern-system, I will describe two eccentric specimens of it. The first is still to be seen at Trinity Hall, Cambridge; the second once existed at the University of Leyden.