Fig. 148. The author of The Chronicles of Hainault in his study (1446).
Fig. 150. A writer with his desk and table. From a MS. of Le Livre des Propriétés des Choses in the British Museum.
The simplest form of desk is a plain board, set at a suitable angle by means of a chain or cord extending from one of its corners to the back of the chair, while the opposite corner rests against a peg driven into the arm of the chair. This arrangement, variously modified, occurs very frequently; sometimes there are two pegs and two chains, but what I may term the normal form is shewn in my illustration ([fig. 147])[537]. It is difficult to understand how the desk was kept steady.
Fig. 147. S. Mark writing his Gospel. From a MS. Hours written in France in the fifteenth century.