From the south side of the Waddesdon Room a passage leads to the North-East Staircase, the lowest flight of which we descend to reach the King's Library.
The King's Library, the depository of the great and choice library of George III., may be reached also from the entrance hall through the Grenville Library. At its south end, from which the show-cases in this room are numbered, are four cases with select Oriental manuscripts, including illuminated Persian manuscripts, also the Recognitions of Clement of Rome, etc., dated 411 A.D. and believed to be the oldest extant manuscript in book form. Cases XXIII-XXIV contain Chinese manuscripts and examples of ancient and modern Chinese printing. The other exhibition-cases are devoted to a Collection illustrating the history of printing. In this room and in the manuscipts Saloon and Grenville Room very full labels describe the exhibits, which deserve the most detailed scrutiny.
CASES I-VIII. History of Printing on the Continent, beginning with 'Block Books' (none earlier than 1470), printed from whole-page wood blocks.
CASES IXa-XIIb. English Printing from the time of Caxton (circa 1475) to the early products of the press in America and Australia.
CASES XIII and XIV. Famous English Books, including a First Folio of Shakespeare (1623).
CASES XV and XVI. Music Printing, showing the development from leaving spaces for notes in manuscript, through printing from blocks, to the use of movable types.
In the cases farther north are Early Maps and a notable collection of English Bibles.
CASES XIX-XXII. Early Book Illustration.
CASES XXVII-XXXII contain Bookbindings. - XXVII, XXVIIIa. Royal bindings (from Henry VIII. to George IV.). - XXVIIIb. Temporary exhibition of bindings. - XXIX. German, French, and English 'blind-stamped' bindings (15-16th cent.); later German and Dutch gold-tooled bindings. XXX. Italian (the Oriental influence in Nos. 3 and 6, and the sunk cameos in No. 4 should be noticed). Bindings made for Jean Grolier (Nos. 7 and 8) and for T. Maioli (Nos. 9 and 10). XXXI. French gold-tooled bindings, at first imitated from Italian, but from circa 1560 supreme. Nos. 4 and 9, Grolier bindings; books bound for kings and queens, for Colbert, De Thou, and others; specimens of the 'fanfare' (Nos. 11 and 12 by N. Eve), 'semis,' 'pointille,' and 'dentelle' styles; armorial bindings (No. 26, bound for the Baron de Longepierre, with his badge of the Golden Fleece). - XXXII. English bindings, many in imitation of the French and Italian styles, and some chosen from the old Royal Library; velvet and 'cottage' (Mearne) styles; bindings by Roger Payne.
About halfway down the room is a large astronomical globe, by P. Coronelli (1693), opposite which are three cabinets containing the Tapling Collection of Postage Stamps, with slides which the visitor pulls out for himself.
