Who clothes his books in Tyrian dyes,
Then brushes off the dust and flies,
Nor reads one line to make him wise,
Spends lavish gold and—FOLLY buys.
Such a desk as this was used in the succeeding century in at least two libraries belonging to ladies of high rank. The first belonged to Margaret of Austria, daughter of Maximilian, Emperor of Germany. She had been the wife of Philibert II., Duke of Savoy, and after his death, 10 September, 1504, her father made her regent of the Netherlands. She died at Malines 30 November, 1530, at the age of fifty. She seems to have been a liberal patroness of literature and the arts, and the beautiful church that she built at Brou in memory of her husband bears witness to her architectural taste and skill.
The inventory, out of which I hope to reconstruct her library, is dated 20 April, 1524[530]. It is headed: "Library," and begins with the following entry: "The first desk (pourpitre) begins over the door, and goes all round up to the fireplace." On this desk or shelf are enumerated fifty-two volumes, all bound in velvet with gilt bosses. This entry is succeeded by: "here follow the Books of Hours, being on a desk high up in continuation of the preceding one between the windows and the fireplace." This desk contains twenty-six volumes bound in velvet, red satin, or cloth of gold, with gilt bosses.
We come next to "the first desk below (d'ambas) beginning near the door at the first seat." This desk carries nine books, presumably on the sloping portion, because we presently come to a paragraph headed "here follow the books covered with leather &c., which are underneath the desks beginning near the door." The author of the inventory then returns to the first desk, and enumerates eleven volumes. He next goes round to "the other side of the said desk," and enumerates thirteen volumes. In this way six desks are gone through. All have books bound in black, blue, crimson, or violet, velvet laid out upon them, while those in plainer dress are consigned to the shelves beneath. It should be added that the fourth desk is described as being near the fireplace (empres la chemynée).
The desks having been gone through, we come to "the books which are within the iron trellis beginning near the door." This piece of furniture contained twenty-seven volumes.
The number of books accommodated in the whole room was as follows:
| First shelf | 52 | |||||
| Second shelf | 26 | 78 | ||||
| First | desk | (sloping portion) | 9 | |||
| Under | desk: | one side | 11 | |||
| " | " | other side | 13 24 | 33 | ||
| ———— | ||||||
| Second | desk | 21 | ||||
| 11 | ||||||
| 10 21 | 42 | |||||
| ———— | ||||||
| Third | " | " | 26 | |||
| 13 | ||||||
| 10 23 | 49 | |||||
| ———— | ||||||
| Fourth | " | " | 15 | |||
| 18 | ||||||
| 14 32 | 47 | |||||
| ———— | ||||||
| Fifth | " | " | 19 | |||
| 11 | ||||||
| 10 21 | 40 | |||||
| ———— | ||||||
| Sixth | " | " | 20 | |||
| 9 | ||||||
| 10 19 | 39 | 250 | ||||
| ———— | ||||||
| Within the trellis-work | 27 | |||||
| 355 | ||||||
We will next try to form some idea of the way in which this library was arranged; and first of the two shelves which begin "over the door." A shelf in this position is shewn in Carpaccio's well-known picture of S. Jerome in his study. It is set deskwise against the wall supported on iron brackets. As a large proportion of the fifty-two volumes on our shelf are described as of large size (grant), we shall be justified in assuming that each was 10 in. broad. The total therefore would occupy 520 in. or say 43 ft. at least, not allowing for intervals between them. This shelf extended from the door round the room to the fireplace, by which I suppose we are to understand that it began on the wall which contained the door, and was carried round the corner of the room up to the fireplace.
The second shelf, at the same height as the preceding, contained only twenty-six volumes, fifteen of which are described as small (petit). A space of thirteen feet or even less will therefore be amply sufficient to contain them.
The six desks which stood on the floor were, I imagine, constructed in some such way as that which I have figured above from the Ship of Fools. It is evident that books in velvet bindings and adorned with gilt bosses would be set out where they could be seen, and for such a purpose what could be better than a lectern? The table I have given above shews that there were 110 volumes thus disposed, or an average of say 18 to each desk. A careful analysis of the inventory, where the size of each book is always set down, shews me that there were very few small books in this part of the library, but that they were divided between large (grant) and medium size (moien). If we allow 8 in. for each book, we get an average of 144 in. = 12 ft. for each desk, that is, as the desk was double, the piece of furniture was 6 ft. long. Under the sloping portion it had a shelf on each side. Four such desks stood between the door and the fireplace, and two between the fireplace and the window, which seems to have been opposite the door.