Chained libraries

In celebration of the opening of the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library later this spring, Nancy Spiegel, the Library’s bibliographer for art and cinema, is writing a series of posts about the history of libraries and library architecture, pointing readers to interesting works in the Library’s collections. This is the second post in the series.

In the Middle Ages, libraries in the West were associated with religious institutions such as monasteries and cathedrals. There was a close connection between the room where manuscripts were copied (scriptorium), and the locked storage area containing books and other kinds of valuables (armarium). A rare, surviving  architectural drawing of the abbey of St. Gall, shows in ca. 820 a two-story building with a scriptorium on the first floor and a library above.

Early in the 1300s, libraries introduced browsable reference collections, which were attached by chains to one or more reading desks. Since researchers were unable to move the books, the desks were placed in close proximity to a window, typically perpendicular to the exterior wall, in an arrangement that prevailed well into the 17th century. Surviving examples of medieval libraries include Hereford Cathedral Library and Corpus Christi College in Oxford.

The pictured book from our Special Collections Research Center, Ars Brevis: Manuscript, 1313,  bears evidence of its use in a chained library. A loop, or hasp, was fitted to the front board in the 14th century to accommodate the chain. Codex manuscripts like this one were valuable research tools, and libraries took great care to provide both security and access.