Bookcases

A bookcase is an article of furniture, forming a shelved receptacle, usually perpendicular or horizontal, for the storage of books. more...

History of the bookcase

When books were written by hand and were excessively scarce, they were kept in small coffers which the wealthy carried about with them on their journeys. As manuscript volumes accumulated in the religious houses or in regal palaces, they were stored upon shelves or in cupboards, and it is from these cupboards that the bookcase of today directly descends. At a somewhat later date the doors were discarded, and the evolution of the bookcase made one step forward. Even then, however, the volumes were not arranged in the modern fashion. They were either placed in piles upon their sides, or if upright, were ranged with their backs to the wall and their edges outwards. The band of leather, vellum or parchment which closed the book was often used for the inscription of the title, which was thus on the fore-edge instead of on the back.

It was not until the invention of printing had greatly cheapened books that it became the practice to write the title on the back and place the edges inwards. Early bookcases were usually of oak, which is still deemed to be the most appropriate wood for a stately library.

Oldest bookcases

The oldest bookcases in England are those in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, which were placed in position in the last year or two of the 16th century; in that library are the earliest extant examples of shelved galleries over the flat wall-cases. Long ranges of book-shelves are necessarily somewhat severe in appearance, and many attempts have been made by means of carved cornices and pilasters to give them a more riant appearance--attempts which were never so successful as in the hands of the great English cabinetmakers of the second half of the 18th century.

Read more at Wikipedia.org