There are 29 bookcases in each aisle. Between each pair of cases there is a wooden floor, raised 3½ in. above the general level of the room; and there is an interval of 2 ft. 3 in. between the cases and the wall, so that access may be readily obtained to them from either end. The room is paved with unglazed tiles.
The westernmost bay is empty ([fig. 90]), being used as a vestibule, and the first bookcase, if I may be allowed the expression, on each side, is really not a bookcase but a seat ([fig. 93])[358].
Fig. 94. Part of a bookcase at Cesena to shew the system of chaining.
The construction of these cases is most ingenious, both as regards convenience and economy of space. If they were designed by the architect who built the room, he must have been a man of no ordinary originality. Each piece of furniture consists of a desk to lay the books on when wanted for use, a shelf for those not immediately required, and a seat for the reader, whose comfort is considered by a gentle slope in the back ([fig. 93]). At the end next the central alley is a panel containing the heraldic devices of the Malatesta family.
The principal dimensions of each case are as follows:
| Length | 10 ft. 2½ in. | |
| Height | 4 ft. 2¼ in. | |
| Width of seat | 3 ft. 1 in. | |
| Width of foot-rest | 11 in. | |
| Height | 3½ in. | |
| Height of seat from ground | 1 ft. 10½ in. | |
| Width | 1 ft. 4 in. | |
| Distance from desk to desk | 4 ft. 1 in. | |
| Angle of slope of desk | 45°. |
