Page:Libraries in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods.djvu/52

 was observed. The design was evidently much admired, for we find cases on a similar plan, but larger, elsewhere in Oxford, as at the Colleges of Corpus Christi, S. John's, Trinity, Jesus, and in the Bodleian Library.

Bookcase in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

Another device for combining desk with shelf is to be seen at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and, as these cases were set up after 1626, we have here a curious instance of a deliberate return to ancient forms. There is evidence that there once existed below the shelf a second desk, which could be drawn in and out as required, so that a reader could stand or sit as he pleased, as you will see from the next illustration.

Bookcase in the Library of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

The University of Leiden in Holland adopted a modification of this design, for there the shelf