S. C. Roberts

“ Ultimate history we cannot have in this generation; but we can dispose of conventional history and show the point we have reached on the road from the one to the other.... If History is often called the teacher and the guide that regulates public life, which, to individuals as to societies, is as important as private, this is the time and the place to prove the title.... ”

“ In spite of the statement of the Syndics quoted at the end of the preceding chapter, the University Commissioners of 1850-52 reported their opinion that
it is only by associating printers or publishers in some species of co-partnership with the University, or by leasing the Press to them, that any considerable return can hereafter be expected from the capital which has been invested in it ... we are satisfied that no Syndicate, however active and well chosen, can replace the intelligent and vigilant superintendence of those whose fortune in life is dependent upon its success. ”

“ We should now expect to see a steady continuance of university printing. But, in spite of the King's letters patent, the history of Cambridge printing for nearly fifty years is a blank. It is true that the university immediately availed itself of [21] the privilege conferred upon it, and the "three stationers and printers or sellers of books residing within the university" who were appointed were Nicholas Speryng, Garrett Godfrey, and Segar Nicholson, whose careers have been sketched above. ”

“ The business of the Press was defined as consisting of the printing of bibles, testaments, and prayer-books; of printing work for the university and colleges; of printing books edited for the Syndics; of book and job printing for the members of the university; of printing works published by the Parker and other learned societies; and of "such Book work, as, subject to the 'Imprimatur' of the Vice-Chancellor, may be offered by Publishers and other connexions of the Press." ”

“ Parker retired in 1854 and, in spite of the serious fluctuations in the bible trade, the first half of the [141] nineteenth century must be regarded as a period of expansion in building, in machinery, and in business. For the first time the chief servant of the Syndics was a man with an intimate knowledge of the book trade, who served the university as publisher as well as printer. The assumption by the Syndics themselves of the full responsibilities of a publishing firm was reserved for the later half of the century. ”

“ I propose printing off 2000 the first impression, but only 1000 of the State holidays &c which the patentee has left out. The paper is very good and stands me in 27 or 28 shillings the Ream.
I am taking great pains, in order to produce a striking title-page & specimen of the Bible which I hope will be ready in about six weeks. The importance of the work demands all my attention; not only for my own (eternal) reputation; but (I hope) also to convince the world, that the University in the honour done me has not intirely misplaced their Favours. ”

“ In the meantime the university had taken steps to ensure the suppression of heretical books. In 1529 a petition was presented to Cardinal Wolsey, begging:
that for the suppression of error, there should be three booksellers allowed in Cambridge by the King, who should be sworn not to bring in or sell any book which had not first been approved of by the censor of books in the University, that such booksellers should be men of reputation and gravity, and foreigners, (so it should be best for the prizing of books,) and that they might have the privilege to buy books of foreign merchants [14] . ”

“ Evidently the high prices charged by the Stationers for books of which they held, or claimed to hold, a monopoly were the source of bitter complaints amongst teachers and students and the university authorities set up a spirited opposition: "As to ye poore printer," wrote Dr Gooch, Master of Magdalene, to the Registrary (James Tabor) : "there is no waye but one, the universitie must stand upon our Charter." ”

“ One of the most important of the Syndics' undertakings towards the end of the last century was The Cambridge Modern History. Lord Acton had been elected Regius Professor of Modern History in 1895 and early in 1896 the Syndics approached him with a view to the compilation of a great English universal history. In his report of 15 July, 1896 Lord Acton wrote:
Universal history is not the sum of all particular histories, and ought to be contemplated, first, in its distinctive [149] essence, as Renaissance, Reformation, Religious Wars, Absolute Monarchy, Revolution, etc. ”

“ The supposition contained in the last cryptic note was well justified, as Wilson had in March, 1805, proposed to the Clarendon Press "to put the University in possession of the Art of Stereotype Printing"; later in the same year the Delegates, having resolved that "the University of Cambridge being in possession of the Art, it seems not only expedient, but necessary, that Oxford should be possess'd of the [124] same advantages," entered into an agreement by which Wilson was to instruct their representatives in the stereotype processes for the sum of £4000 [128] . ”

“ Crownfield retired from the office of printer in 1740 and received a pension from the university until his death in 1743 [103] . He was a bookseller as well as a printer and seems to have done some binding as well [104] . His bookselling business was carried on after his death by his son James, and a book of 1744 is described on the title-page as "printed for J. Crownfield."
His successor was Joseph Bentham, appointed first by the Curators as 'Inspector' on 28 March, 1740 [105] , and elected printer on 14 December of the same year. ”

“ My opinion of this Island hath always been, that it is the very face, and beauty of all Europe, in which both true Religion is faithfully professed without superstition, and (if on earth) true Learning sweetly flourishes without ostentation: and what are the two eyes of this Land, but the two Universities ... and truly I should forget myself, if I should not call Cambridge the right eye.
In the same year there was printed for David Owen, Fellow of Clare Hall, a controversial work entitled Herod and Pilate reconciled. ”

“ Siberch, then, probably lived in Cambridge from 1520 to 1523, a period during which the labours of the first Cambridge humanists were beginning to bear fruit. In 1497, the Lady Margaret, mother of Henry VII, had appointed as her confessor John Fisher, Master of Michaelhouse; and "to the wealth and liberality of the one," in Mullinger's words, "and the enlightened zeal and liberality of the other the university is chiefly indebted for that new life and prosperity which soon after began to be perceptible in its history." ”

“ Dyer says of Bentham that "he was not eager after money in the way of business, but rather ambitious of printing Works that would do him credit. He had a great taste for Gardening and a turn for humour. He was an amiable man, as all the Benthams were; and was the only Bentham of the family that was not in orders. There were six brothers, who all used to assemble at the Prebendal-house in Ely at Christmas." [109] Joseph was an alderman of Cambridge and lived in a house adjoining the Press in Silver Street, the whole group of buildings forming "a sort of Quadrangle or Square." ”

“ Thus when John Legate, himself a freeman of the Stationers' Company, printed an edition of Terence [32] for the use of scholars in 1589 and sent copies to be sold in London, the Stationers quickly confiscated them; on their part, the Stationers were at the same time contemplating another pirated edition of Thomas's Dictionary. The university made its usual, dignified complaint to Lord Burghley.
Again, in 1591, Legate, who had in that year produced the first English bible printed at Cambridge, was accused of infringing the monopoly of Barker and Day, the privileged printers. ”

“ For my own part, I am sometimes forced to make types, which are commonly brass, of which I here send you a specimen (± a ± b ± c) . It is called plus-minus ±. I printed my first tracts at Cambridge when Archdeacon (not Bentham) was their printer. I was very sick of it; the University meanly provided with mathematical types insomuch that they used daggers turned sideways for plus's. They were sunk into arrant traders, even to printing hand-bills, quack-bills, &c., which they then for the first time permitted for Archdeacon's profit. ”

“ In 1715, when James Gibbs presented his design for "the Publick Building at Cambridge," his plans included provision for the printing-house above the Registrary's office in the southern wing; and it has been therefore inferred that the printing-house in Silver Street was not adequate to the needs of the university [112] . Only a portion of Gibbs's scheme (the Senate House) was carried out and in 1762 the Syndics of the Press, seeking fresh accommodation, [106] purchased a house, called The White Lion, which probably stood on the south side of Silver Street, facing the old Press. ”

“ The Authors, for the most part being Gentlemen of the University engaged with Pupils during Term-time, furnish their Copy in detail—loosely written—and frequent suspensions of MS, which necessarily occasions great delay and inconvenience.... The Gentlemen of the Press Syndicate must be aware (tho' a London Printer cannot, unless he witnessed the operation) that the Examination-Papers which of late years have abundantly increased, must from their nature have retarded all regular work in the Composing Room. ”

“ The Insolvency (he writes) of the University's late Lessees for Bibles and the wishes and power of the King's Printer considered, it was then a prevailing opinion, that no advantage could well be made by printing Bibles and Com. Prayers: therefore the Syndics were very diffident and cautious in undertaking other Impressions [107] .
However, having previously passed a resolution that Bentham was to sell no bibles without authority from one of themselves, the Syndics in March, 1743/4, covenanted with Bathurst that he should be the sole [103] selling agent for all books printed at Cambridge. ”

“ My folio Bible is pretty far advanced at Cambridge, which will cost me near £2000 all hired at 5 p Cent. If this does not sell, I shall be obliged to sacrifice a small Patrimony which brings me in [£74] a Year to this Business of printing; which I am heartily tired of & repent I ever attempted. It is surely a particular hardship that I should not get Bread in my own Country (and it is too late to go abroad) after having acquired the Reputation of excelling in the most useful Art known to Mankind ”

“ Those who are familiar with the Catalogue of Cambridge Books and the Biographical Notes on Cambridge Printers will appreciate the measure of my debt to the work of the late Robert Bowes. When, in 1913, I sent him a copy of a magazine article on the University Press, he wrote:
I am by it carried back to my pleasant work of 25 to 30 years ago, and I am very glad in my 78th year to see younger men interesting themselves in the subject. ”

“ But he, a companion of the Stephenses and of the other, very few, printers of the true kind and best omen, was of opinion that it was men of learning, thoroughly imbued with academic studies, who should give themselves to cultivating and rightly applying that illustrious benefit sent down from heaven and given to aid mankind and perpetuate the arts. ”

“ Baskett, the king's printer, filed a Bill in Chancery against Fenner for printing bibles; the injunction was subsequently withdrawn, but meanwhile John James was losing confidence in the scheme and growing anxious about his money; he urged Fenner to "go on with the Cambridge Patent Work in common Type Way by the Assistance of Mr Watson, and have nothing farther to do in the Plate Way." "As far as I can learn," wrote James in another letter (28 Nov. 1732) , "the Booksellers all agree that the Prayer-Book that is done will by no means pass. ”

“ Thomas Adams (afterwards Sir Thomas Adams, Bart., Lord Mayor of London) had in 1632founded a professorship of Arabic and some years later (probably in 1645) the Senate decreed, that having established a press and such other apparatus as should be required, they should devote their attention to the production of books in Arabic, in order that the fruits of the Adams benefaction should be handed down to posterity and diffused throughout the world [54] . There is, however, no record of Arabic printing at Cambridge until a much later date [55] .
Buck was a scholar as well as a printer [56] ”

“ The next award of the Privy Council, made on 29 November, 1623, embodied a compromise: the Cambridge printers were authorised to comprint with the Stationers all books save bibles, books of common prayer, grammars, psalters, primers or books of common law; they were to have one press only and to print only those almanacks of which the first copy was brought to them. ”

“ The suit which they [the Stationers] have made unto your lordship for the stay of our printer until the next term, is so prejudicial to the poor man, as if they should prevail therein, it could not but tend to his utter undoing; especially Sturbridge-fair now drawing near; being the chiefest time wherein he hopeth to reap greatest fruit of this his travail [23] .
Similarly, in 1596, Legate was charged—this time by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners—with infringing the right of the Queen's patentees by [33] printing the Grammar and Accidence. ”

“ By 1890 the catalogue of the Syndics' publications had grown considerably, not only by additions to the Pitt Press and other Series, but by the publication of larger works on literary and scientific subjects, such as Robertson Smith's Kinship and Marriage in early Arabia, Willis and Clark's Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, Maitland's edition of Bracton's Note Book, and Jebb's Sophocles. ”