This chapter looks at movement in a particular architectural space. The library brings up all sorts of questions when we consider it in terms of movement. The first and perhaps most important is: what do we mean when we talk about discussing movement in a space? There are many possibilities, and this chapter will attempt to explore some of them, although no doubt the reader will be able to think of even more. The question of the extent to which those moving through the spaces at the time considered themselves in motion and reflected upon it in those terms is not so easy to discern, and inevitably this paper is exploring what might have been the case from the limited evidence available. However, the project is not without any foundation: the library itself changed dramatically in layout in the early modern period, and this gives us an opportunity to discuss how those changes must have affected movement with some certainty.

Libraries

Before looking at the specific issue of movement, it is perhaps worth briefly addressing what we mean by a library. In this period, the library was almost never a freestanding building, but rather a room in a larger institution. The extent to which this room was ‘designed’ will, as we shall see, vary greatly across the period. The library was almost never conceived by a single individual The room itself was usually built and set out by an architect or stonemason, while the fittings were pieces of furniture that were added or fitted in by joiners or cabinetmakers.