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A: Oxford, England, United Kingdom

Possibly the Earliest Extant Examples of Wall-Shelving are in Duke Humfrey's Library in the Bodleian Library

1610 to 1612
Duke Humfrey's Library Interior 6, Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK   Diliff

The interior of Duke Humphrey's Library, the oldest reading room of the Bodleian Library in the University of Oxford.

Bookshelves constructed in the Arts End of Duke Humfrey's Library in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, designed for smaller books to be shelved upright rather than folios laid flat, were installed from 1610 to 1612. They are among the earliest surviving bookshelves of this type. 

Wormald & Wright, The English Library before 1700 (1958) 237, and frontispiece.

Timeline Themes