[Scriptoris] Period Display of Scrolls?

[Diane Rudin]

--- Nuala wrote:

> I am not sure if this is even remotely period or not but when I was
> growing up, many homes had special wooden tables with a slanted top and a
> lip at the bottom.  

<snip>
 
> Does anyone know if anything similar was used in period, perhaps for
> ecclesiastical books?

They did have something similar to what you describe, but it was not to display
books for admiration, but to hold a book a scribe was copying, or books a
scholar was studying.  Paintings of St. Jerome, or the Gospel authors, working
at desks are a good place to find examples of period scribal workspace.  "Saint
Jerome in his Study", by Domenico Ghirlandaio c. 1480, is my personal favorite.
 There's one by Carpaccio, "The Vision of St Augustine" (c. 1500), that also
has some nice details in it.  The ecclesiatical legal documents in that picture
are messily tossed on the floor, with books piled everywhere!  

--Serena

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