Portable desk

The portable desk has not one but many forms. It can be seen as an ancestor of the portable computer, and the modern laptop could be considered an atavistic grandchild of the 19th-century lap desk.

Medieval and renaissance portables

It seems that all desks were portable to some extent, from medieval times to the end of the Renaissance, with the exception of built-in tables and inclined ranks of desks found in places such as the scriptorium or library of a monastery. This was due to the itinerant nature of medieval kingship and the similar conditions that prevailed in lesser administrations under dukes or counts. There was rarely a single capital for a kingdom, and the monarch and his (or her) court would travel periodically between several seats of power during the year, taking precious goods and much of their furniture with them. A good example of this is Henry VIII's writing desk. The traditional French words for furniture – le mobilier and les meubles – reflect this. They describe those goods that are "mobile", in contrast to those that are not: les immeubles, that is, buildings.