Fig. 41. Exterior of the Library at Salisbury Cathedral, looking north-east.
Nothing is known of the dimensions or arrangement of the above room; but, as it was over a cloister, it must have been long and narrow, like that which still exists in a similar position at Wells Cathedral, which I will briefly mention next.
The Chapter Library at Wells Cathedral occupies the south end of a long, narrow room over the east pane of the cloister, approached by a spiral staircase from the south transept. This room is about 162 feet long by 12 feet wide; the portion assigned to the library is about 106 feet long ([fig. 42]). The roof was originally divided into 13 spaces by oak principals, very slightly arched, resting on stone corbels. There were two windows on each side to each space. In the part fitted up as a library the principals have been plastered over to imitate stone, and the joists between them concealed by a ceiling. There is a tradition that this room was fitted up as a library in 1472. The present fittings, which I shall have occasion to mention in a subsequent chapter, were put up when the library was refitted and stocked with books after the Restoration[249].
These four examples—at Lincoln, Salisbury, S. Paul's, and Wells—are typical of Cathedral libraries built over a cloister. I will next notice some that were detached.
The library of Lichfield Cathedral[250] stood on the north side of the cathedral, west of the north door, at some little distance from the church ([fig. 43]). It was begun in 1489, when Thomas Heywood, dean, "gave £40 towards building a library of brick," and completed in 1493. It was about 60 feet long by 15 feet wide, approached by a flight of stairs. As the Chapter Order (9 December, 1757) which authorised its destruction speaks of the "Library, Chapter Clerk's House, and Cloisters," I suspect that it stood on a colonnade, after the manner of the beautiful structure at Noyon, a cathedral town in eastern France, at no great distance from Amiens.
This library—which I have carefully examined on two occasions—was built in pursuance of the following Order of the Chapter, 16 November, 1506.