bookcaseArticle Free Pass bookcase, piece of furniture fitted
with shelves, often enclosed by glass doors, to hold books. A
form of bookcase was used in early times: the illuminated
manuscript Codex Amiatinus (ad 689–716) in Florence contains an
illustration of the prophet Ezra writing in front of a cupboard
with open doors that reveal shelves holding books. Ambries
(recesses in walls) were used to hold books from the earliest
times. Even after the invention of printing, books were still
such a rare luxury that they were commonly kept in a chest or on
one shelf beneath a desk. The history of bookcases was also
connected with the medieval fittings of college libraries in
Britain. In the Bodleian Library at Oxford, presses (medieval
cupboards) were abandoned in favour of shelves rising to such a
height that a gallery was introduced for ease of access. This
system was adopted in a number of great Palladian houses in
Britain in the first half of the 18th century. Twelve oak
bookcases made for the diarist Samuel P