[3] But see Robinson, 3.
Along the south wall of the cloister at Chester is a
series of recesses which are believed to have been used for
bookcases. Two recesses for aumbries are still to be seen
in the cloister at Worcester: it is recorded that one book,
the Speculum Spiritualium, was to be delivered "to ye
cloyster awmery." At Beaulieu the arched recesses in the
south wall of the church may have been put to a similar
use. These recesses are shown on the plan here reproduced;
so also is the common aumbry in the wall of the south
transept.
In large continental houses a bookroom was sometimes
needed very early. One of the monasteries of Cassiodorus
included a special room for the library, with at least nine
presses in it.[1] At St. Gall, a special bookroom was
planned, if not actually built, as early as the ninth century.
According to the old drawing still preserved at St. Gall,
this room was to be on the north side of the presbytery,
symmetrically with the sacristy on the south side. It was
in two stories. The ground floor was to be arranged as a
writing-room,--infra sedes scribentium,--the furniture being
a large table in the centre, and seven writing-desks against
the walls.
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