Oxford University Press

“ Paper of this kind reaches its acme in the famous Oxford India Paper, the invention of which made revolutionary changes in the printing of Bibles. A great many Oxford books are now printed in two editions, an ordinary and an India paper. If the saving of space is an important consideration, the convenience of the thinner editions of such books as the Concise Oxford Dictionary, the Concise Dictionary of National Biography, or the Oxford Survey of the British Empire is obvious; and many people like to read the Poets and the Classics in thin and light volumes. ”

“ In English literature the Press has built up in a quarter of a century a whole library of uniform series, all of respectable dimensions. The Oxford English Texts are library editions of famous authors edited after exhaustive examination of the materials, in print and in manuscript, and handsomely printed from type; the Tudor and Stuart Library consists of first editions and exact reprints of famous books of that period, printed in the types of the period on paper calculated to last for many centuries more ”

“ Oxford Books on the Empire Oxford is proud to consider itself as par excellence the Imperial University. The administration of the Empire owes much to Oxford men, as the University in its turn owes much to her sons from overseas. Imperial subjects are an important and growing branch of study at Oxford; and the Press, true to its tradition of building upon the foundations of experience, has in time put together an imposing collection as well of the classics of colonization and administration as of new and original treatises by scholars versed in its theory and practice. ”

“ Corporate feeling has always been strong among the workers at the Press, and though the Delegates and their officers have done what they could to promote it, it is essentially a natural growth. Many of the work-people come of families which have been connected with the Press for generations; and they are proud not only of the old traditions of fine and honest work, but also of the usefulness and scholarly excellence of the books on which their labour is spent. The Press is, in all its parts, conscious at once of its unity and of its relation to the University of which it is an integral part. ”

“ The modern history of the printing and publishing of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer is a large subject. The University of Oxford, like the other privileged printers, has appreciated the obligations attached to the privilege as well as the opportunities which it affords. Every attention has been paid to accuracy and excellence of printing and binding, to the provision of editions suited to every purpose and every eyesight, and to the efficient and economical distribution of the books all over the world at low prices. ”

“ Very little use seems to have been made of these gifts before the commencement of the [Pg 216] succeeding century. The first Bible printed at Oxford was that of 1674, and no important editions of the classics issued from the University press of this period.
It was left to Cambridge to issue the best works of this class, for which that University borrowed the Oxford types, having no type-foundry of its own. These editions, chiefly in quarto, came from the press of Thomas Buck, who had succeeded Roger Daniel as printer to the University. ”

“ There is something surprising in Oxford being chosen as the printing-place of a book to persuade mothers to nurse their own children (1622, Clinton) ; and an episcopal alchemist is not often to be met with in real life (1621, Thornborough) . It is less to be wondered at that a college which had leased land to Queen Elizabeth for a quiet five thousand years, should try to be relieved of its agreement within fifty (1623, Oxford) .
There is no need of a general history of the University Press at this time, as distinguished from the annals which the Appendixes of this work present. ”

“ Printing in Oxford dates from the seventh or eighth decade of the 15th century, but was only carried on spasmodically until 1585, when the first university printer was Joseph Barnes. All the subsidiary processes of type founding, stereotyping, &c., are carried on in the buildings of the press, and paper is supplied from the university mill at Wolvercote. The press is to a large extent a commercial firm, in which the university has a preponderating influence, governing it through a delegacy. ”

“ A distinguished American who had been invited to dine in an Oxford College confessed afterwards that as he entered the room his knees knocked at the thought that ‘all [85] these Fellows talked Latin’; and the public is sometimes frightened away from an Oxford book by the apprehension that it will be found full of Greek quotations. There is in fact no necessary connexion between accuracy and pedantry; and even Dons are often men of the world, well acquainted with the limitations of the average intelligence. ”

“ The growth of the Press in the first two decades of the present century is due to the co-operation of a large number of individuals: of the members of the University who have acted as Delegates; of their officers, managers, and employees; and of the authors of Oxford books. ”

“ Oxford Bibles and Prayer Books can be inspected in mass at many booksellers’, as well as in the Depository at 116 High Street, Oxford, and in the showrooms at Amen Corner, in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and in the Branches overseas. Lack of space has everywhere made it impossible to exhibit the far greater number of Clarendon [53] Press and other secular books on the same scale, but the books may be seen on application at any of the Press offices, and the popular series, gift books, &c., are always displayed. ”

“ The increase of staff has made it possible to open a new branch in Calcutta—a sub-branch in Madras already existed—and it is confidently hoped that in the near future the business done in Oxford books, and adaptations of them, will be increased in volume, and that the service rendered by Oxford to the Indian Empire will be further enhanced by the activities of its Press. ”

“ Though it [51] necessarily requires revision as new publications accrue, it is hoped that the Catalogue will not be treated as ‘throw-away literature’. It is a well-printed and solidly bound book, and the cost of supplying free copies to book-buyers all over the world is not inconsiderable.
The Press produces two periodicals descriptive of its publications: the official Bulletin distributed to booksellers, librarians, and other professional buyers, and the unofficial Periodical addressed to amateurs. Number 1 of the Bulletin (4 April 1912) consisted of a single page ”

“ There are a great many booksellers in Oxford, who are not sworn to the University; the consequence of which is, that books of great value are sold and carried away from Oxford, the owners of them are cheated, and the sworn stationers are deprived of their lawful business ”

“ No Bibles or Prayerbooks were issued at Oxford till 1675, but this Grammar and three Almanacs (see 1637 B, C, and W.) raised the standard of revolt against monopoly. On 20 March 1636
7 the Stationers’ Company agreed to pay the University £200 a year, if it would agree not to issue the classes of books in question, and no further difficulties arose till after the Restoration. ”

“ No imprint: 1624: sm. 4o: pp. [8] : ( ) 3r beg. Consilium extorsit: Great Primer Roman. Contents:— ( ) 1r, title: 2r-4r, the Latin poem, at end “Faciebat R.A.”
A Latin hexameter poem on the death of sir Thomas Reid, of whom I do not readily find any account. No part of this was printed in Oxford, the woodcuts and type being unknown there: even the small device of the Arms of the University on the titlepage (which has caused this work to be ascribed to the Oxford Press) differs from the genuine one. ”

“ It is probable that the opening years of the twentieth century will see the age-worn bust of Alfred and the copy of the Oxford Jerome in the University archives consigned to a common flame as Impostors in an age of light.
Copies known. 1. British Museum. Perfect. Given by the Earl of Oxford on 10 Mar. 1729
30 to James West, at whose sale in 1773 it probably passed to M. C. Tutet: then in the King’s Library, which passed in 1829 to the British Museum, where it bore the mark 8. D. 5; now 167. b. 26.
2. Bodleian. Wanting e 10, a blank leaf. One page (b 7r) is printed askew, in this copy only. ”

“ Classical literature is the great object at Oxford. Many minds so employed have produced many works, and much fame in that department: but if all liberal arts and sciences useful to human life had been taught there; if some had dedicated themselves to chemistry, some to mathematics, some to experimental philosophy; and if every attainment had been honoured in the mixt ratio of its difficulty and utility; the system of such an University would have been much more valuable, but the splendour of its name something less. ”

“ Quam solam Regia Majestas | in omnibus Scholis do-|cendam præcipit. | [line, woodcut, line] ”, with impr. 72 c: (74) arms of the University, &c.: 1–130, a Latin grammar, syntax and prosody, in Latin: (1–30) “Omnium nominum ... ac verborum interpretatio ...”: (31–3) four Latin poems, including graces: (34) woodcut picture of the tree of knowledge, and students gathering the fruit.
This is the first Latin grammar printed at Oxford since 1518, and is issued “Cum Privilegio.” The grammar itself was already, in its Latin form, more than a hundred years old, and many editions of it had been printed. ”

“ The underlined words in the above title are printed in red, as well as “Oxoniæ,” in the imprint. A copy was presented by the author to Henry Spelman on 4 Sept. 1635.
13. *†Oxford, University. ... Encyclopædia
No imprint, but Oxford (?) , 1635 (?) : (one) la. 4o. Contents:—p. (1) the Encyclopædia.
This is a fine sheet, engraved by “T. Cecill” on metal, 163
16 × 161
16 in. In the upper part there is a dedication of “hæc Encyclopædia et Synopsis Statutorum” to archbp. Laud. ”

“ MS. New College 173 was written at Oxford in this year (Coxe) .
1370. Robert, bookbinder, St. Mary’s (Magd.) : Robert Bokebinder and Agnes his wife occur in 1377 (?) and 1380 (Oxf. City Doc., pp. 41, 47) .
1373/4, Jan. 27. At this date “Quia, propter excessivam multitudinem vendentium libros Oxoniæ Universitati minime juratorum, plerique codices magni valoris ad partes exteras deferuntur” the University decreed that no booksellers except the sworn stationers or their deputies should sell any book exceeding half a mark in value. ”

“ Arts, indeed, always continued to be regarded theoretically as the proper subject of Oxford University studies, but in their eagerness to acquire the more lucrative branches of learning, the students were too often content with a smattering of polite letters. ”

“ The task of writing a book on Oxford University is by no means an easy one. If it be a novel there are countless pitfalls to entrap the author—points small and inconsequent to the reader who cannot proudly claim the City of Spires as his Alma Mater, but irritating beyond description to the man who knows and loves Oxford. ”

“ Nevertheless, there is a common tendency in them, and in the university of Oxford, towards the belief that, to use the words of the editor, “We are free moral agents in a sense which cannot apply to what is merely natural.” There is indeed much more activity of thought at Oxford than the world suspects. ”

“ There a man might read, and comfort himself according to his means, and finally at night stamp up and down a passage, to warm his feet, before going to sleep in a crowded bed-chamber. On any day there was a chance that some splendid man, coming a little in the rear of his fame, would arrive in Oxford, and lecture or read a book. Should kings, or priests, or rude citizens interfere, the scholar could rusticate voluntarily—as he sometimes did—at Stamford, or Reading, or Maidstone, or Cambridge, and there, as best he might, by study and self-denial, as by a sacrament, recreate the University. ”

“ When we find that some two hundred and fifty editions of classical works, mostly, but not wholly, in the ancient languages, were published in Oxford during the first half of the eighteenth century, it is hardly possible to doubt that many industrious readers must have existed among the students and fellows of colleges, however imperfect may have been the organisation of lectures. ”

“ The present proposals to widen the influence of Oxford University do not mean, therefore, that the classics, history, and philosophy are to be taught less there, but only that other subjects are to be taught more, and that a greater number and variety of young men will be prepared there for the service of the nation. ”

“ It would be little less than audacious to pretend to give any authentic account of the rise of Oxford University, and we may as well at once admit the fact that one of our great national institutions, alive and vigorous in the nineteenth century, dates its beginning from ages whose traditions are purely mythical. ”

“ He received neither office nor reward from the university which owed so much to his labours. He never married, and led a life of self-denial, entirely devoted to antiquarian research. Bell-ringing and music were his chief relaxations. His literary style is poor, and his taste and judgment are frequently warped by prejudice, but his two great works and unpublished collections form a priceless source of information on Oxford and her worthies. ”

“ Nor are the physical sciences apparently likely to acquire soon a hold on the popular feeling of the University. Still, as before, the pivot around which Oxford studies revolve is formed by the solid metal of the ancient classical authors, whose words are picturesque and statuesque, and fraught with the same eternal beauty, the same adaptability as models for all time, as the things that the hands of their contemporaries produced. ”