Chapter IV: Oxford Books (1)

Oxford Series 73

Oxford Books on the Empire 81

The Oxford Standard 83

Illustrated Books 90

Official Publications 92

The Oxford English Dictionary 95

The Dictionary of National Biography 103

The Oxford Medical Publications 106

Oxford Books for Boys and Girls 109

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 110

I

HISTORICAL SKETCH

The first book printed at Oxford is the very rare Commentary on the Apostles’ Creed attributed to St. Jerome, the colophon of which is dated 17 December, Anno domini Mcccclxviij. It is improbable that a book was printed at Oxford so early as 1468; and the bibliographers are on various grounds agreed that an x has been omitted. If so, Oxford must be content to date the beginning of its Press from the year 1478; while Westminster, its only English precursor, produced its first book from Caxton’s press in 1477.

The first printer was Theodoric Rood, who came to England from Cologne, and looked after the Press until about 1485; soon after which date the first Press came to an end. The second Press lasted from 1517 until 1520, and was near Merton College. Some twenty-three books are known to have issued from these Presses; they are for the most part classical or theological works in Latin. There is no doubt that this early Press was really the University Press; for many of the books have the imprint _in Alma Universitate Oxoniae_ or the like, some bear the University Arms, and some are issued with the express privilege of the Chancellor of the University.

After 1520 there is a gap in the history, which begins again in 1585. The Chancellor of that time was Queen Elizabeth’s favourite, the Earl of Leicester, who in the first issue of the new Press is celebrated as its founder. Convocation in 1584 had appointed a committee _De Libris imprimendis_, and in 1586 the University lent £100 to an Oxford bookseller, Joseph Barnes, to carry on a press. In the next year an ordinance of the Star Chamber allowed one press at Oxford, and one apprentice in addition to the master printer. Barnes managed the Press until 1617, and printed many books now prized by collectors, among them the first book printed at Oxford in Greek (the Chrysostom of 1586), the first book with Hebrew type (1596), Richard de Bury’s _Philobiblon_, and Captain John Smith’s _Map of Virginia_.

FOUR FOUNDERS OF THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

The first printing-house owned by the University; used for storing Oriental type and printing-furniture, 1652.]

The first notable promoter of the Oxford Press was Archbishop Laud, whose statutes contemplate the appointment of an _Architypographus_, and who secured for the University in 1632 Letters Patent authorizing three printers (each with two presses and two apprentices), and in 1636 a Royal Charter entitling the University to print ‘all manner of books’. The privilege of printing the Bible was not exercised at this date; but in 1636 Almanacks were produced, and this seems to have alarmed the Stationers’ Company, who then enjoyed a virtual monopoly of Bibles, Grammars, and Almanacks; for we find that in 1637 the University surrendered the privilege to the Stationers for an annual payment of £200, twice the amount of Joseph Barnes’s working capital. The most famous books belonging to what may be called the Laudian period were five editions of Burton’s _Anatomy of Melancholy_ and one of Bacon’s _Advancement of Learning_ in English.

Some ancient examples used by the Oxford University Press]

The work of the Press during the Civil War is of interest to historians and bibliographers on account of the great number of Royalist Pamphlets and Proclamations issued while the Court of Charles I was at Oxford; a number swollen in appearance by those printed in London with counterfeit Oxford imprints. But this period is not important in the history of the Learned Press; and after 1649 it suffered a partial eclipse which did not pass until the Restoration.

The history of the Press in the latter part of the seventeenth century will always be connected with the name of the second of its great patrons, Dr. John Fell, Dean of Christ Church and Bishop of Oxford. Fell made the great collection of type-punches and matrices from which the beautiful types known by his name are still cast at Oxford; he promoted the setting up of a paper mill at Wolvercote, where Oxford paper is still made; he conducted the long, and ultimately successful, struggle with the Stationers and the King’s Printers, from which the history of Oxford Bibles and Prayer Books begins (1675). In 1671 he and three others took over the management of the Press, paying the University £200 a year and spending themselves a large sum upon its development. Lastly, it seems that he suggested to Archbishop Sheldon the provision, due to his munificence, of the new and spacious printing house and _Theatre_ which still bears his name. The Press was installed there in 1669, and began to issue the long series of books which bear the imprint _Oxoniae e Theatro Sheldoniano_, or in the vulgar tongue _Oxford at the Theater_. These imprints, indeed, were still used, at times, long after the Press had been moved from the Sheldonian to its next home in the Clarendon Building. Many learned folios were printed at this time, including pioneer work by Oxford students of Oriental languages; the book best remembered to-day is no doubt Anthony Wood’s _Historia et Antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis_ published in 1674.

To this period belongs also the first exercise of the privilege to print Bibles and Prayer Books, which was recognized, as we have seen, at least as early as 1637, when the Stationers’ Company paid the University to refrain from printing Bibles. This agreement lasted until 1642, and, by renewal at intervals, until 1672, when it was at length denounced; and in 1675 a quarto English Bible was printed _at the Theater_, and a beginning made of what has become an extensive and highly technical process of manufacture and distribution.

Early in the eighteenth century the Press acquired, with a new habitation, a name still in very general use. The University was granted the perpetual copyright of Clarendon’s _History of the Rebellion_ (a possession in which it was confirmed by the Copyright Act of 1911); and the _Clarendon Building_ was built chiefly from the profits accruing from the sales of that book. Many editions were printed in folio at various dates; and the Press Catalogue still offers the fine edition of 1849, with the notes of Bishop Warburton, in seven volumes octavo, and that of the _Life_ in two volumes, 1857; the whole comprising over 5,000 pages and sold for £4 10_s._ Still cheaper is the one-volume edition of 1843, in 1,366 pages royal octavo, the price of which is 21_s._ More recently the demands of piety have been still further satisfied by the issue of a new edition based on fresh collations made from the manuscript by the late Dr. Macray. Though the Clarendon Building long since ceased to be a printing house, one of its rooms is still _The Delegates’ Room_; and there the Delegates of the Press hold their stated meetings.

In the eighteenth century the Bible Press grew in strength with the co-operation of London booksellers and finally with the establishment (in 1770, if not earlier) of its own Bible Warehouse in Paternoster Row. The Learned Press, on the other hand, though some important books were produced, suffered from the general apathy which then pervaded the University. Sir William Blackstone, having been appointed a Delegate, found that his colleagues did not meet, or met only to do nothing; and addressed to the Vice-Chancellor a vigorous pamphlet, in which he described the Press as ‘languishing in a lazy obscurity, and barely reminding us of its existence, by now and then slowly bringing forth a Program, a Sermon printed by request, or at best a Bodleian Catalogue’. The great lawyer’s polemic gradually battered down the ramparts of ignorant negligence, and the Press began to revive under the new statute which he promoted. Dr. Johnson in 1767 was able to assure his sovereign that the authorities at Oxford ‘had put their press under better regulation, and were at that time printing _Polybius_’.

The Clarendon Building is not large, and the Press very soon outgrowing it was partly housed in various adjacent buildings, until in 1826-30 the present Press in Walton Street was erected. It is remarkable that though the building is more like a college than a factory—it is of the quadrangular plan regular in Oxford—and was built when printing was still mainly a handicraft, it has been found possible to adapt its solid fabric and spacious rooms to modern processes with very little structural alteration. Extensive additions, however, have been and are even now being made.

The activities of the nineteenth century are too various to detail; but a few outstanding facts claim mention. The Bible business continued to prosper, and gained immensely in variety by the introduction of Oxford India paper and by the publication, in conjunction with Cambridge, of the Revised Version of the Old and New Testaments. Earlier in the century there was a period of great activity in the production of editions of the Classics, in which Gaisford played a great part and to which many foreign scholars like Wyttenbach and Dindorf gave their support. Later, in the Secretaryships of Kitchin (for many years afterwards Dean of Durham) and of Bartholomew Price, new ground was broken with the famous _Clarendon Press Series_ of school books by such scholars as Aldis Wright, whose editions of Shakespeare have long served as a quarry for successive editors. The _New English Dictionary_ began to be published in 1884. Meanwhile the manufacturing powers of the Press at Oxford and the selling powers of the publishing house in London were very widely extended by the energies of Mr. Horace Hart and Mr. Henry Frowde, and the foundations were laid of the great and multifarious enterprises which belong to the history of the last twenty years.

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. In so far, however, as this period of its history can be identified with the name of one man, it will be remembered as that in which the late CHARLES CANNAN served the Delegates as Secretary. The Delegates at his death placed on record their judgement that he had made an inestimable contribution to the prosperity and usefulness of the Press. The _Times Literary Supplement_, in reviewing the last edition of the _Oxford University Roll of Service_, gave some account of the services performed by the University in the war. One paragraph dealt with the work of the Press:—

‘Probably no European Press did more to propagate historical and ethical truth about the war. The death of its Secretary, Charles Cannan, a year ago, has left an inconsolable regret among all those more fortunate Oxford men, old and young, who had the honour to be acquainted with one of the finest characters and most piercing intelligences of our time. He was a very great man, and is alive to-day in the spirit of the institution which he enriched with his personality and his life.’

II

THE PRESS TO-DAY

§ 1. _The Press at Oxford_

The main building of the Oxford Press, erected 1826-30, consists of three sides of a quadrangle. The two main wings, each of three floors, are still known as the _Learned Side_ and the _Bible Side_, though their appropriation to Bibles and secular books has long since ceased in fact. On the Learned Side are the hand composing rooms, both the book department and the jobbing department, where some readers and compositors are employed in setting up the official papers of the University, examination papers, and other miscellaneous work, and the more difficult and complicated books produced for the Delegates or other publishers.

The total quantity of type in the Press is estimated at over one million pounds of metal, and includes some 550 different founts of type in some 150 different characters, ranging from the hieroglyphic and the prehistoric ‘Minoan’ (cast to record Sir Arthur Evans’s discoveries), to the phonetic scripts of Sweet and Passy; and including Sanskrit, Greek, Roman, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Amharic, Coptic, Armenian, Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese, Sinhalese, Tamil, Gothic, Cyrillic. Here, too, are the famous Fell types acquired by the University about 1667. These are virtually the same as the founts from which were printed the first edition of _The Faerie Queene_ and the First Folio Shakespeare; and their beauty makes them still the envy of printers all the world over. Here compositors are still daily engaged in setting the Oxford Dictionary (with its twenty-one different sizes or characters of type), which has been slowly growing since 1882. One compositor has a record of thirty-eight years’ continuous work on the Dictionary.

In part of the same wing is the _Delegates’ Warehouse_. Here, and in a number of annexes, including the old _Delegates’ School_ built about 1840, repose the oldest and most durable of the Delegates’ publications. They are stored for the most part in lofty stacks of unfolded sheets, like the piers of a Norman crypt. From these vaults was drawn into the upper air, in 1907, the last copy of Wilkins’s _Coptic New Testament_, published in 1716, the paper hardly discoloured and the impression still black and brilliant. It is estimated that these warehouses contain some three and a half million copies of about four thousand five hundred distinct books.

Of the _Bible Side_ the ground floor is now the press room or _Machine Room_, which, with its more recent extensions, holds about fifty machines, from the last survivor of the old flat-impression double Platens to the most modern American double-cylinder ‘perfecting’ presses with their automatic ‘feeders’. All kinds of printing are done here, from the small numbers of an oriental book or a Prayer Book in black and red to the largest impression of a Bible printed in sheets containing 320 pages each. The long experience of printing Bibles on thin paper and especially on Oxford India paper has given the Oxford machine-minder an unrivalled dexterity in the nice adjustment required to produce a fine clean effect on paper which will not stand a heavy impression.

As the sheets come from machine they are sent to the _Bindery_. This was until recently on the floor above the machine room, but has lately been transferred to a larger and more convenient building erected in the old garden behind the Press. The Oxford Bindery deals with most of the Clarendon Press books in cloth bindings, and prides itself upon the fine finish of the cases and gilding of such beautiful books as the _Oxford Book of English Verse_, as well as on being able to turn out artistic and attractive cloth and paper bindings for books sold at the lowest prices. It still deals with a part only of the books printed under the same roof; but a large expansion is looked for in the near future.

Between the two wings, and across the quadrangle, are two houses once occupied by the late Horace Hart and by Dr. Henry Bradley, now the senior of the three editors of the Oxford Dictionary. The houses became some years ago unfit for habitation from the encroachment of machinery; but one of them was a welcome refuge during the years of war to the staff of the Oxford Local Examinations, who on the 5th of August 1914 were turned out of their office at an hour’s notice to make room for a Base Hospital.

Adjacent to the houses are the fire-proof _Plate Room_, where some 750 tons of metal are stored, the _Stereotype and Electrotype Foundry_, and the _Monotype Rooms_, a department which has lately added to its equipment and bids fair to pass the ancient composing rooms in output. Other departments in and about the old building are the _Photographic Room_, famous for its collotype printing, the _Type Foundry_, where Fell type is still cast from the old matrices, and the _Ink Factory_.

The front of the building on Walton Street consists chiefly of packing rooms, where books are dispatched by rail or road to the City of London and elsewhere, and of offices—those of the Printer to the University on the ground floor and those of the Secretary to the Delegates above. Here are reference libraries of books printed or published by the Press, and records ranging from the oldest Delegates’ minute-book of the seventeenth century to modern type-written correspondence arranged on the ‘vertical’ system of filing.

As the visitor enters the main gate the first object which catches his eye is a plain stone monument on the lawn. There are inscribed the names of the forty-four men of the Oxford Press who gave their lives in the War. Beyond the memorial is the quadrangle, made beautiful by grass and old trees; and from upper windows it is still possible to look over the flats of the Thames Valley and see the sun set behind Wytham Woods.

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 NAGEL BUILDING

This spirit is well shown by the history of the Press Volunteer Fire Brigade, constituted in 1885. The Brigade now numbers thirty-two officers and men, who by regular drills and competitions have made themselves efficient firemen, and able to assist the Oxford City Brigade in case of need. The Press possesses also a branch of the St. John Ambulance Brigade, and first aid can be given at once if any accident happens.

Various Provident and Benevolent Societies exist at the Press, and the principle of co-operation by the employer was recognized for many years before the passing of the National Health Insurance Act. The Hospitals Fund makes substantial yearly contributions to the Radcliffe Infirmary and the Oxford Eye Hospital, and in view of the pressing needs of these institutions the subscription to the Fund has recently been doubled.

The common life naturally finds expression in the organization of recreation of all kinds. There is a Dramatic Society, the records of which go back to 1860; an Instrumental Society, dating from 1852; a Vocal Society, a Minstrel Society, a Piscatorial Society; Athletic, Cricket, Football, and Bowls Clubs, now amalgamated; and, not the least useful nor the least entertaining, the Gardening Association, formed during the war to meet the demand for more potatoes. Such of the men of the Press as were obliged to content themselves with the defence of the home front, responded with enthusiasm in their own gardens and allotments; and the Food Production Exhibition which crowned their efforts in the summer of 1918 became an annual event. In peace, as in war, there is need for all the food we can produce; and the Gardening Association has very wisely not relaxed its efforts.

The Clarendon Press Institute in Walton Street, close to the Press itself, provides accommodation for lectures, debates, and dramatic and other entertainments, as well as a library, a reading room, and rooms for indoor games. The building was given by the Delegates, who contribute to its maintenance, but its management is completely democratic. The members appoint their own executive and are responsible for their own finances.

The Council have since 1919 issued a quarterly illustrated Magazine, printed ‘in the house’. The _Clarendonian_ publishes valuable and entertaining records of the professional interests and social activities of the employees of the Press, as well as affording some outlet for literary aspirations.

§ 2. _The Press in the War_

The Press made to the prosecution of the War both a direct and an indirect contribution. In August 1914 about 575 adult males were employed at Oxford; of these sixty-three, being members of the Territorial Force, were mobilized at the outbreak of war; and of the remainder some 293 enlisted in 1914 or later. Considering the number of those who from age or other causes were unfit for service, the proportion of voluntary enlistment was high. The London Office and Wolvercote Mill also gave their quota to the service of the Crown.

Those who were obliged to remain behind were not idle. The Oxford historians at once engaged in the controversy upon the responsibility for the War; and in September 1914 the Press published _Why We are at War: Great Britain’s Case_, a series of essays closely and dispassionately reasoned, and illustrated by official documents including the German White Book, reproduced exactly from the English translation published in Berlin for neutral consumption and vitiated by clumsy variations from the German original. _Why We are at War_ rapidly went through twelve impressions, and at the instance of Government was translated into six languages. The profits were handed over to the Belgian Relief Fund. At the same time was initiated, under the editorship of Mr. H. W. C. Davis, the series of Oxford Pamphlets on war topics, of which in a short time more than half a million copies were sold all over the world. Later, when the public appetite for pamphlets slackened, and the world had leisure for closer study, the series of _Histories of the Belligerents_ was founded, which is noticed elsewhere.

‘The Clarendon Press,’ writes Sir Walter Raleigh in his Introduction to the _Oxford University Roll of Service_, ‘though deprived of the services of virtually all its men of military age, was active in the production of books and pamphlets, most of them written by Oxford men, setting forth the causes and issues of the War—a mine of information, and an armoury of apologetics.’

Not the least of the services rendered by the Press was the printing done for the Naval Intelligence Department of the Admiralty directed by Admiral Sir Reginald Hall. Both secrecy and speed were essential to the usefulness of this work, and to secure them the Printer to the University made special arrangements involving a severe strain upon himself and those to whom the work was entrusted. Admiral Hall, when unveiling the Press War Memorial in October 1920, declared that the work done was unique in kind, and that without the help of the Press the operations of his Department could not have been carried out with success.

As the War dragged on, the numbers employed at the Press steadily declined; the demands of Government as steadily increased; the shortage of materials of all kinds became more and more acute. None the less the Bible Press met an unprecedented demand for the New Testament by supplying within three years four and a half million of copies for use in the field. The Learned Press, too, continued to produce, though the volume of production became less and less. The machinery of the Dictionary, though its movement was retarded, never came to a standstill. The scientific journals continued to appear, and not a few learned books were published. A greater number, however, were placed in the Delegates’ safes, in expectation of the increased facilities which the end of the War has hardly brought. The manufacturing powers of the Press, indeed, have virtually reached their pre-war level; but the ever-rising cost of labour and materials has made it as yet impossible to restore to its old volume the output of books which could at no time have been remunerative. It may be added that the Delegates, like other publishers, have had to consider that the purchasing power of the public on which they rely has not kept pace with the rise in costs. The price of books has of course risen very greatly; but the ratio of increase has been substantially lower than that of commodities in general.

§ 3. _Wolvercote Paper Mill_

The first mention of paper-making in or near Oxford is a story of one Edwards, who about 1670 planned to erect a mill at Wolvercote and was encouraged by Fell. In 1718 Hearne the antiquary wrote that ‘some of the best paper in England is made at Wolvercote Mill’. It was bought by the Press in 1870.

The Mill stands on a branch of the Thames, on the edge of the quiet village of Wolvercote, and near the ruins of Godstow Nunnery. The water-wheel has long ceased to play more than a very minor part in the driving of the mill, which now has two modern paper-making machines, 72 and 80 inches wide respectively. The power used is partly steam, but a large part of the plant has quite recently been electrified.

Most varieties of high-class printing paper are made at Wolvercote, which besides feeding the Press does a considerable trade with other printers. The paper made for the Oxford Dictionary and some other books is of the finest rag and is probably as durable as the best hand-made paper of former times. But the Mill is best known for its ‘Bible’ papers, exceptionally thin, tough, and opaque, with a fine printing surface. 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. The _Oxford Homer_ will go into a pocket, though it has 1,374 pages; and the India paper _Shakespeare_ and _Oxford Book of English Verse_ are delightfully easy to carry and handle.

The Controller of the Mill is Mr. Douglas Clapperton (a name well known in the paper trade), who succeeded Mr. Joseph Castle in 1916.

§ 4. _The Press in London_

The association of the Oxford Press with London booksellers—the publishers of former days—goes back to early times. Apart from the negative agreement with the Stationers’ Company, _not_ to print Bibles and Almanacks, we find, at the end of the seventeenth century, Oxford Bibles bearing the imprint of various London booksellers. In 1776 Dr. Johnson wrote to the Master of University College a letter, printed by Boswell, in which he sets forth with knowledge and perspicacity the philosophy of bookselling; the moral of the discourse is that the University must offer more attractive discounts to the book trade—a doctrine which has been adopted in modern times, though in 1776 it perhaps fell upon deaf ears.

Not later than 1770 a Bible Warehouse was established in Paternoster Row. But it was not until a century later that the Press undertook the distribution in London of its secular books. In 1884 these books, formerly sold by Messrs. Macmillan, were taken over by the Manager of the Bible Warehouse, Mr. Henry Frowde, who thus became sole publisher to the University; an office which he continued to hold with great skill, devotion, and success until on his retirement in 1913 he was succeeded by Mr. Humphrey Milford.

To-day the activities of the Press in or near Amen Corner, London, E.C. 4, are multifarious. From his bound stocks Mr. Milford is ready at short notice to supply to the booksellers or booksellers’ agents any Clarendon Press book, any Bible or Prayer Book, any of the books published by himself as publisher to the University, such as Oxford Poets, World’s Classics, Oxford Elementary Books, or by himself and Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton—the Oxford Medical Publications—or for the numerous learned bodies and American Universities for whom he is agent whether in the United Kingdom or universally.

In the premises at Amen Corner alone it is estimated that upwards of three quarters of a million books are at any one time in stock. Packing and distribution is carried on in the basement and also at Falcon Square, where the large export department operates. Mr. Milford also maintains at Old Street a ‘quire’ department from which books in sheets are given out to his own or other binderies, and in Aldersgate Street a bindery from which many of the finest Bibles and other leather books are turned out.

The offices at Amen Corner are the centre of the selling activities of the Press; from them is directed the policy of the branches of the business at home and abroad. An institution so far-flung naturally causes some confusion in the public mind. Inquiries from India have sometimes been addressed to New York, and Mr. Horace Hart treasured an envelope addressed to _The Controller of the Universe_. In general, however, it is now widely understood that inquiries for books should be addressed (by booksellers, or by the public, if the usual trade channels fail) to _Oxford University Press_ in London or at the nearest Branch (New York, Toronto, Melbourne, Cape Town, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Shanghai, Copenhagen); questions about printing to _Controller, Clarendon Press, Oxford_, and proposals for publication either to the nearest Branch or direct to the _Secretary, Clarendon Press, Oxford_.

§ 5. _The Administration of the Press_

All the activities of the Press may be described as a function of the corporation known as the _Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars_ of the University of Oxford, acting through the Delegates of the Press. The constitution of this Delegacy is in some respects peculiar. So long ago as 1757 the statute promoted by Sir William Blackstone for the better management of the Press established the principles of continuity and of expert knowledge by the constitution of _Perpetual Delegates_; and these principles have been maintained.

The Delegacy is now composed of the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors for the time being _ex officio_, and (normally) of ten others, of whom five are Perpetual. Delegates are appointed for a term of years by the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors, by whom they may be re-elected; but when a vacancy occurs among the perpetual Delegates, the Delegates as a whole are enjoined by statute to ‘subrogate’ one of the junior Delegates to be perpetual, _ad supplendum perpetuo numerum quinque Perpetuorum Delegatorum_.

The roll of the Delegates contains the names of many famous scholars. Among those of recent times may be mentioned William Stubbs, Ingram Bywater, Frederick York Powell. Within the last few years the Press has sustained very heavy losses in the death of some of the most experienced of its Delegates. William Sanday, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, took an active part in the many works of profound learning upon New Testament criticism, by which Oxford has maintained its fame for the prosecution of Biblical learning. Henry Tresawna Gerrans, Fellow of Worcester College, was active in financial administration and in the organization of educational publications. David Henry Nagel, Fellow of Trinity College, gave invaluable advice on scientific books and on technical processes of manufacture. He was chiefly responsible for the plan of the new Bindery, recently completed, which bears his name. The services of Sir William Osler, Regius Professor of Medicine, and of Charles Cannan, of Trinity College, for over twenty years Secretary to the Delegates, are noticed elsewhere in these pages.

The composition of the board on 1 December 1921 was as follows:

The Vice-Chancellor (Dr. L. R. Farnell, Rector of Exeter College) and the Proctors; T. B. Strong, Bishop of Ripon and formerly Dean of Christ Church (_extra numerum_, by Decree of Convocation); C. R. L. Fletcher, Magdalen College; P. E. Matheson, Fellow of New College; D. G. Hogarth, Fellow of Magdalen College and Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum; N. Whatley, Fellow of Hertford College; Sir Walter Raleigh, Fellow of Merton College and Professor of English Literature—all perpetual Delegates: H. J. White, Dean of Christ Church; Sir Archibald Garrod, Student of Christ Church and Regius Professor of Medicine; Cyril Bailey, Fellow of Balliol College; H. E. D. Blakiston, President of Trinity; and N. V. Sidgwick, Fellow of Lincoln.

The principal officers are: _in Oxford_, R. W. Chapman, Oriel College, _Secretary_; J. de M. Johnson, Exeter College, _Assistant Secretary_; F. J. Hall, _Printer to the University_; _in London_, Humphrey Milford, New College, _Publisher to the University_; _in New York_, W. W. McIntosh, Vice-President of the American Branch; _in Toronto_, S. B. Gundy, Manager of the Canadian Branch; _in Bombay_, G. F. J. Cumberlege, Worcester College, Manager of the Indian Branch; _in Melbourne_, E. R. Bartholomew, Manager of the Australian Branch.

§ 6. _The Finances of the Press_

For some two centuries from the time of Fell the Press was partly controlled by private partners; since the last of these was bought out by the efforts of Bartholomew Price, the University has been completely master of all its printing and publishing business. The Press to-day has no shareholders or debenture-holders, and subserves no private interest. On the other hand it possesses virtually no endowment. The whole of its great business has been gradually built up by the thrifty utilization of profits made by the sale of its books or in a minor degree from work done for outside customers. The maintenance of the Learned Press, with its output of scholarly and educational books, many of which are in their nature unremunerative, depends and has always depended upon the profitable management of the publications of the Press as a whole. In the last century the revenue devoted to learning was supplied mainly from the sale of Bibles and Prayer Books; but changing conditions led the managers of the Press to the conclusion that if the promotion of education and research were to keep pace with the growing volume and range of the demand, it would be necessary to expand the general activities of the business in many directions.

In prudent pursuance of a far-sighted policy, the overseas Branches of the Press were established to increase the sale of Oxford books; new departments of the publishing business were created, such as the very extensive series of cheap editions of the English Classics, and, more recently, the Oxford Elementary Books and the Oxford Medical Publications; and in the course of years the publications of the Learned Press itself have gradually become more popular in character and addressed to a wider audience. In the event, the Press to-day possesses a business of such magnitude and variety as will, it may be hoped, enable it to surmount the formidable obstacles which the increased cost of manufacture opposes to the production of all works of learning.

The demands made upon the Press for the organization and publication of research are now at least as great as ever. It has again and again been pointed out by the friends of research, that organization and encouragement are idle unless the publication of valuable results is guaranteed; and in the past scholars in this country, and not in this country only, have looked to the Presses of Oxford and Cambridge to do the work which in Germany was carried out by Academies subsidized by Government for this purpose. But the fulfilment of such expectations is far more onerous than formerly. The tenth and last volume of the great English Dictionary, now more than half printed, will when it is complete have cost at least £50,000. The revised edition of Liddell and Scott’s Greek Lexicon, upon which the Delegates embarked some years before the war, is now estimated to cost £20,000. These are enterprises in the successful conclusion of which the honour of the University is concerned; and they will be concluded; but the date of completion, and therefore the initiation of other projects of learning, have inevitably been retarded by the events of the last seven years.

The endowment of research is a difficult subject, and nobody is more conscious than are the Delegates of the Press, that results of lasting value are not achieved by the mere expenditure of money. Yet they cannot but be aware that by the possession of the machinery and traditions of such works as the English Dictionary, and by their intimate association with experts in many fields, they are in a position to promote research and co-operative enterprise in the most effective and economical way. The support given to the Press in the past, whether by individuals or by other institutions devoted to learning, has been trifling in consideration of the work which it has produced. The need of such support is now far more urgent; and the record of the Press is proof that financial support would be turned to good account.

§ 7. _Oxford Imprints_

The imprints used by the Press as printers and as publishers are various, and their import is not always understood. _Oxford at the Clarendon Press_ is historically and strictly a printer’s imprint, and it is confined to books printed at Oxford; but it has come to mean more than this, and to be appropriated to such books as are not only printed at Oxford, but are also published _auctoritate Universitatis_, their contents as well as their form being certified by the University, acting through the Delegates of the Press. A book with this imprint may in general be assumed to be published at the expense of the Delegates; but the ‘Clarendon Press imprint’ has come to be so prized as carrying the Oxford ‘hall-mark’ that its use has occasionally been solicited and accorded for works of learning produced under the patronage of government or of learned societies within the Empire and the United States of America.

The Press publishes also, in the ordinary course of business, large numbers of books for which the Delegates assume a less particular responsibility; these are issued with the London imprint of the Publisher to the University (_Oxford University Press: London, Humphrey Milford_) or those of its branches abroad (_Oxford University Press American Branch_, _Oxford University Press Indian Branch_ and so on), or on behalf of the numerous universities, learned societies, or private publishers for whom the University Press publishes either universally or in certain parts of the world. Among the bodies for whom the Press acts as publisher are the British Museum, the British Academy, the Early English Text Society, the Chaucer Society, and the Philological Society; the Egypt Exploration Society, Society of Antiquaries, the Pali Text Society, the Church Music Society, and the Royal Society of Literature; the Universities of St. Andrews, Bombay, and Madras; the University Presses of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Princeton; the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, the American Historical Association, and the American Scandinavian Foundation. _The Oxford Medical Publications_ and some other books are issued with the joint imprint of Henry Frowde (Mr. Humphrey Milford’s predecessor as Publisher to the University) and Hodder and Stoughton. The Press is publisher in Australia to many English houses.

§ 8. _Catalogues and Advertisement_

Until recent years the Press has relied on its trade catalogues and special lists, and on the skilled assistance of the bookseller, to make known to the public the great number and variety of its issues of the Bible, the New Testament, Prayer Books, Hymn Books, and kindred works, as well as of its general publications—reprints, medical books, elementary books and so on; while the Clarendon Press Catalogue of learned and educational books was a relatively modest affair of under 200 pages. The need of a single general catalogue for the information of librarians and book-lovers had long been felt, but pressure of business delayed its preparation until the late Mr. Charles Cannan addressed himself to the task, and with the devoted co-operation of his daughters (who had replaced the members of the office staff gone forth to war) and the advice of many scholars, produced in 1916 the first edition of the _General Catalogue_, comprising over 500 pages of close print and including under one comprehensive classification all the secular books sold by the Press, wheresoever printed, and whether published by the University on its own account or on behalf of other University Presses or learned bodies; together with a representative list of Bibles, &c. (useful to the inquirer though not intended as any substitute for the elaborate trade catalogues or for the indispensable guidance of the expert bookseller), and a very full alphabetical index.

The General Catalogue has in the second edition been brought up to January 1920, and a third edition is in preparation. Supplements are also from time to time issued comprehending the books published since the current edition of the Catalogue. The Supplement now current comprises all books published in 1920.

For the convenience of specialists the Catalogue is also issued in sections—History, Literature, the Classics, Natural Science, Cheap Reprints—and special lists have recently been made of books on such subjects as the British Empire, International Law and Politics, India, Modern Philosophy. Schoolmasters and University teachers are asked to apply for the _Select Educational Catalogue_ issued at frequent intervals, which by omission of the larger and more elaborate books allows of illustrative information for which there is no room in the general catalogue.

The General Catalogue has been computed to contain over 8,000 distinct books or editions of books. These vary from such works as the _New English Dictionary_ and the _Dictionary of National Biography_, with their 15,000 and 30,000 pages, to the smallest and cheapest pamphlets and school-books. The total may be guessed to comprise something like two and a half millions of printed pages of which no two are identical.

The issue of the Catalogue has secured a wide and increasing recognition of the comprehensive character of Oxford publications. ‘There are publishers and publishers, but there is only one Oxford University Press’, exclaims a writer in the _Athenaeum_; and many reviewers have noted with sympathetic admiration the value of the Catalogue, not as a mere price list but as a work of reference and as a book to read. Though it 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; but the desire for more information was widely expressed, and a recent number contains in eight pages a classified list of books published during four weeks, with bibliographical and other particulars, a statement of the various catalogues obtainable on application, extracts from reviews, and a list of books which have gone out of print since the current issue of the catalogue. This list is designed to protect booksellers and the public against the assumption, too frequently made, that any and every book is ‘out of print’ which cannot be produced at a moment’s notice. The public are asked not to believe too easily that books are unobtainable. A provincial bookseller (in a University town) recently declared himself ‘unable to trace’ an Oxford book, published in 1920, reviewed at length by the leading literary papers, and advertised nearly every other week in the _Times Literary Supplement_. Many books no doubt (though not many Oxford books) have been and still are out of print; and in the absence of an up-to-date index of current books, the difficulties of the bookseller have been great. Now, however, when the 1920 edition of the trade _Reference Catalogue_ is available, with its single alphabetical index (of 1,075 pages in double column), the ascertainment of the facts is not difficult except in so far as the catalogues indexed have themselves become obsolete. All information about Oxford books that is _not_ in the 1920 _Reference Catalogue_ may be found in the _Supplement_ of Books published in 1920, or in the cumulative list of _Price Changes_, or in the _Bulletin_; all of which every bookseller has, or may have for the asking.

With the _Bulletin_ is issued from time to time a supplement calling the attention of librarians and others to Oxford books in some special field. The circulation of the _Bulletin_ is about 2,000.

The _Periodical_ is a ‘house magazine’, perhaps the first of its kind. It was first published in December 1896, and now appears five times a year. Its contents include extracts, of sufficient length to be readable, from new Oxford books, specimen illustrations, quotations from reviews and other newspaper comment on the productions of the Press, obituaries and other honorific notices of authors (on appointment, decoration, or the like), and a certain amount of quasi-literary gossip; for even authors have their foibles. The original editor, who has compiled every number for a quarter of a century, is still at his post, and the popularity of the little paper increases. The demand comes from all over the world—the United States takes nearly half the total and the number of copies distributed gratis of each issue now exceeds ten thousand.

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 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. It is hoped before long to increase the space available for this purpose in the Oxford Depository, and to exhibit there all Clarendon Press books, arranged by subjects as in the Catalogue, so that members of the University and visitors may be able to inspect at one time and place all the books offered in any subject that may concern them. It is hoped to find room for separate exhibits of school-books, maps, and ‘juvenile’ books, so that the busy schoolmaster, with half an hour to spare in Oxford, may make a rapid survey of the contents of the Educational catalogue.

§ 9. _The Press and its Authors_

The Index to the General Catalogue contains the names of some three thousand living authors and editors. With almost all of these the Press deals direct, and not through agents, and their friendly co-operation is of immense service to the Delegates and their officers both in planning books and in securing for them the widest publicity.

Many of the books accepted by the Press are such as in the ordinary way of business would not secure a publisher except under subvention from the author or some favourer of learning; and of these the remuneration (or at least the direct remuneration; for the publication of solid books, like the knowledge of Greek in former times, ‘not infrequently leads to positions of emolument’) is recognized as being nominal, and necessarily inadequate to the labour and skill lavished upon the work. But for books commanding a remunerative sale, if they are of a suitable kind, the Press is prepared to pay the full market value; and it is believed that not many of its authors are dissatisfied with the bargains they have made.

‘It is an immense advantage to an author to be printed by a famous Press’, is the opinion of a veteran of letters, whose name appears in many publishers’ catalogues. It is the aim of the Oxford Press to place at its authors’ service its capacity for accurate and beautiful printing and binding, the goodwill attached to the University imprint, and the selling power enjoyed by its very large organization in the United Kingdom and throughout the world. Publication by the Press gives to an author the further security that his book will not be remaindered, pulped, or allowed to go out of print on the mere ground that it does not enjoy a rapid sale.

It is still sometimes said that ‘the Press does not advertise’. It is believed that Oxford books, in an exceptional degree, advertise themselves and each other—‘the Oxford book’, says an American advertisement, ‘is half sold already’; but the magnitude and variety of its business enable the Press to maintain an elaborate organization of ‘publicity’, which directs its efforts both to the booksellers and to the public at large. It relies largely upon the distribution, in many thousands of copies annually, of its catalogues and bulletins, on the direct dispatch of prospectuses to a large yet carefully selected constituency of buyers in various fields, and on the incalculable factor of public and private discussion. The value of judicious newspaper advertisement is not overlooked, as readers of the _Times Literary Supplement_ well know.

§ 10. _Bibles and Prayer Books_

Some account has already been given of the exercise by the University of its privilege of printing ‘the King’s books’ in early times. 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. In all these respects a standard has been reached which is unknown in any other kind of printing and publishing, and which is only made possible by long experience, continuous production, and intensive specialization. The modern Bible is so convenient to read and to handle that its bulk is not always realized; it is actually more than four times as long as _David Copperfield_. A reference Bible is, also, a highly complicated piece of printing. Accuracy is secured by the employment of highly-skilled compositors and readers—a new Bible is ‘read’ from beginning to end many times—and by the use of the best material processes; for all Bibles are printed from copper plates on the most modern machines, and the sheets are carefully scrutinized as they come from the press. The Oxford Press offers a guinea for the discovery of a misprint; but very few guineas have been earned.

The bulk and weight of Bibles are kept down by the use of very thin and opaque paper, specially made at the Press Mill at Wolvercote. The use of such paper, and especially of the Oxford India paper, the combination in which of thinness with opacity has never been equalled, may be said to have revolutionized the printing of Bibles, by making possible the use of large clear type in a book of moderate size and weight.

Of the Prayer Book as of the Bible a large number of editions is offered to suit all fashions and purposes, and this in spite of the serious risks arising from the liability to change of the ‘royal’ prayers. A demise of the Crown, or the marriage of a Prince of Wales, makes it necessary to print a large number of cancel sheets, which have to be substituted for the old sheets in all copies held in stock or in the hands of booksellers.

A hundred years ago there were nineteen Oxford Bibles and twenty-one editions of the Book of Common Prayer. There are now more than a hundred of each. The Revised Version of the Bible, the copyright of which belongs to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge jointly, is also published in a large variety of editions.

§ 11. _Clarendon Press Books_

By Clarendon Press Books are meant the learned, educational, and other ‘Standard’ works produced under the close supervision of the Delegates and their Oxford Secretariate, and printed at Oxford. These books have a long history, and the Catalogue contains very many titles which have been continuously on sale for nearly a century. The Coptic New Testament of Wilkins, published in 1716, is believed to have been continuously on sale at the original price of 12_s._ 6_d._ until the last copy was sold in 1907, only a few years short of the second century. The current edition of the General Catalogue mentions as ‘the oldest Oxford book still on sale’ another edition of the Coptic New Testament by Woide, published in 1799 and now sold for two guineas; but it has since been noticed that an injustice had been done, and that pride of place should have been given to the Gothic Gospel, a magnificently printed quarto published in 1750, of which some dozen copies (at 30_s._) still remain.

These are extreme examples; they are, however, the result not of oblivion or of indifference, but of a policy which has long been and is still being pursued. The Press produces many works of learning which are so securely based that it is known that the demand, however small, will persist as long as there are copies unsold; and it is the practice of the Press to print from type large editions of such books. Clarendon Press books are neither wasted nor sold as remainders, and when a book goes out of print, some natural tears are shed.