Gorton Chained Library

World Treasures

Chained Books Defined

Harvard

The Book on the Book Shelf

Zutphen Poster

A Look At Chained Libraries

Libraries in the Middle Ages were often transported in the same chest that the books were stored in, but it wasn’t the best was to obtain access of the needed volume. As libraries grew in size, a better method of arranging books needed to be found. Since these books were very precious and even monks had a tendency to walk off with a volume or two, it became necessary to find a way to make books available in a secure fashion. Therefore, books were chained to a lectern and could be viewed only from that location.

In the following links, I have tried to make available not only the descriptive terminology of chained libraries, but also a few pictures. The last link is for a wonderful book, The Book On the Book Shelf by Henry Petroski that gives wonderful pictures (copyright protected) and fascinating details on the subject of chained libraries. It is a great read and certainly worth the money for any book lover.

Susan Titus