CAMPBELL, James W.P. The Library: A World History. Thames & Hudson. 2013.

págs.79-80. "The Libraries of the Renaissance. At this time in history, the library was consolidated as a showcase for private collections...becoming a typology of prestige and propaganda of power.... The library was enshrined in the Renaissance buildings of this time, forging a recognizable pattern for its design throughout the following centuries...From now on, the furniture that accompanies the enclosure where these collections are kept... which make the space more comfortable and useful...

The well-known Studioli of the Italian Renaissance. … tiny private spaces, tiny rooms created for princes, “richly decorated little library rooms”, had this basic furniture: a a simple chair, a writing table… users worked at inclined lecterns, which they used both for reading and writing. The inclined lectern or desk was the most important piece of furniture in any library at this time. This was a piece of furniture that was already found in part in churches and cathedrals (lecters in choirs, benches, cantonals...), adapting to the new needs of the library.

But it was necessary to wait almost a century since the invention of the printing press for changes to occur in the design of European libraries. Consolidating the desk-shelves, with the English models from Oxford and Cambridge being the main references.  The bookshelves-desk (stall libraries) is a system of compartmentalizing the library enclosures, to be able to order and read the books in a functional way. It was developed in the 16th and early 17th centuries and can be considered as a specifically English configuration…

Merton College Oxford 1580 (Bodleian Library), t is perhaps the most representative initial model"