A cabinet was one of a number of terms for a private room in the domestic architecture and that of palaces of Early Modern Europe, serving as a study or retreat, usually for a man; the cabinet would be furnished with books and works of art, and sited adjacent to his bedchamber, the equivalent of the Italian Renaissance studiolo. In the Late Medieval period, such newly perceived requirements for privacy had been served by the solar of the English gentry house, and a similar, less secular purpose had been served by a private oratory. Such a room might be used as a study or office, or just a sitting room.

Heating the main rooms in large palaces or mansions in the winter was difficult, and small rooms were more comfortable. They also offered more privacy from servants, other household members, and visitors. Typically such a room would be for the use of a single individual, so that a house might have at least two (his and hers) and often more.

Names varied: cabinet, closet, study (from the Italian studiolo), office, and a range of more specifically female equivalents, such as a boudoir. With its origins in requirements engendered by the humanist avocation of many of the Italian noble and mercantile elite in the Quattrocento, for increased privacy for reading and meditation, the studiolo provided a retreat often reachable only through the comparatively public bedroom.

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