The Laurentian Library, Florence, is located in the cloister of
S. Lorenzo. The library itself is a long room with reading
desks, well lit by rows of windows between pilasters which
correspond to the beams of the ceiling. This reposeful and
clearly articulated space is preceded by a much taller
monumental vestibule of square plan, almost entirely filled by
an extraordinary staircase (executed by Ammanati 1559-),
spilling from the library door and multiplying into three
flights of stairs, of which the outer two are hardly usable. The
vestibule walls are particularly unorthodox; paired columns
rising from insubstantial volutes are recessed behind the white
plaster wall surface from which project tabernacle niches with
pilasters perversely widening towards their capitals. Source:
Sir Banister Fletcher, 'A History of Architecture', p 888.
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