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CLAIRVAUX.
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have two descriptions; the first written in 1517, the second in 1723.
View of Citeaux: from Viollet-Le-Duc, "Dictionnaire de l'Architecture," i. 271.
The former account, by the secretary of the Queen of Sicily, who visited Clairvaux 13 July 1517, is as follows:
On the same side of the cloister are fourteen studies, where the monks write and study, and over the said studies is the new library, to which one mounts by a broad and lofty spiral staircase from the aforesaid cloister. This library is 189 feet long, by 17 feet wide. In it are 48 seats (bancs), and in each seat 4 shelves (poulpitre) furnished with books on all subjects, but chiefly theology; the greater number of the said books are of vellum, and written by hand, richly storied and illuminated. The building that contains the said library is magnificent, built of stone, and excellently lighted on both sides with fine large windows, well glazed, looking out on the said cloister and the burial-ground of the brethren… The said library is paved throughout with small tiles adorned with various designs.
The description written in 1723, by the learned Benedictines to whom we owe the Voyage Littéraire, is equally interesting:
