Libraries in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods The Rede Lecture Delivered June 13, 1894 — Story, Setting & Ideas

The Sorbonne Library as a Blueprint

Clark translates a manuscript history by Claude Héméré, librarian from 1638 to 1643, to describe the Sorbonne library established in 1289. The room was 120 feet long and 36 feet broad, with nineteen windows on each side to provide daylight from east and west. Twenty-eight desks, each five feet high and marked with alphabet letters, were loaded with chained books. The chains were attached to the right-hand board of each volume so they could be 'readily thrown aside' without hindering reading. Clark notes that readers sat in spaces between desks, isolated from one another, and that ancient rules required 'complete silence' for reading, writing, and handling books.

Chaining and Desk Design at Zutphen

Clark provides precise measurements for the desks at the Church of S. Wallberg in Zutphen: each desk is 9 feet long by 5 feet 6 inches high, and a man can 'sit and read at them very conveniently.' He contrasts this with the Sorbonne's system, which he calls 'wasteful as regards space' because only about two dozen volumes could fit on a single desk. As book collections grew, shelves were added above the desk, either for books standing on end or lying on their sides. The chaining system in England allowed books to be taken down from shelves and laid on the desk for reading, with one end of the chain attached to the middle of the upper edge of the right-hand board.

Merton College as a Surviving Type

Clark presents the library of Merton College, Oxford, attributed to Bishop William Reade (1368–85), as a 'type of a medieval collegiate or monastic library' that has been 'so little altered' it serves as a living example. The room is long and narrow, with equidistant windows and bookcases standing at right angles to the walls between each pair of windows. Originally each bookcase had only two shelves above the desk. Clark shows a general view and a single bookcase and seat, emphasizing that the system of chaining allowed books to be readily taken down and laid on the desk for reading.

The Personal Element in Library History

Clark repeatedly stresses the 'personal element' in library history: the development of printing as 'the result of individual effort,' the art of bookbinding as practiced by different persons in different countries, and the history of books themselves—the libraries they have inhabited, the hands that turned their pages. He quotes Browning to suggest that the 'wronged great soul of an ancient Master' lingers where frescoes decay, applying the same sentiment to books. This perspective frames the lecture not merely as a technical account of library fittings but as a meditation on the human stories embedded in institutional spaces.

Clark’s lecture, delivered in 1894 and illustrated with lantern slides, balances architectural detail with a broader argument about how we value the past. Readers should note that the excerpts focus on medieval chaining systems and room layouts; the Renaissance portion of the talk is not represented here. The text rewards attention to Clark’s word choices—'mincing-machine,' 'temple or haunt of the Muses'—and his use of translated primary sources like Héméré’s manuscript history.

Reading about chained books at the Sorbonne, I remembered the slow weight of my grandfather’s finger tracing a map’s edge—how we hold knowledge to keep it from drifting. That same ache for anchoring returned with Orkney and Shetland Folk 872-1350 — Themes and Context, where islands feel like pages bound by salt and stubborn memory.