ft ' " ' " " ' " " v """ ' ' ' " ' "' " '^ 
 
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 1 THE 1 
 
 lo X F O R Di 
 
 LA! w*ii 
 
 1 University Press i 
 
 ^R ^^ 
 
 1468 192! 
 
 1^ ^S 
 
 3
 
 <v/p.
 
 THE 
 
 OXFORD 
 
 University Press
 
 Second Impression
 
 TnuJ p<fecUV8 
 [itax vitkiKvint SaCukm, 
 
 X"wvvt(iWt'Oxvti uon o&j 
 
 INITIAL FROM THE GREAT CHARTER OF THE UNIVERSITY, 
 
 Granted by Charles I to contirm and settle printing privileges 
 which had been first granted in 1631. See p. no
 
 SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 OXFORD 
 
 University Press 
 
 i 468-1 921 
 
 O X F O RV 
 
 AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 
 
 M CM XXII
 
 Oxford University Press 
 
 "London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen 
 New Tork Toronto Melbourne Cape Town 
 
 Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai 
 Humphrey Milfbrd Publisher to the UNIVERSITY
 
 DIVERSITY OF CALIFWIN] 
 SANTA DA 
 
 THE AUTHOR desires to expreJS 
 his grateful thankl to all those 
 members of the Staffs of the *PreJS and 
 its "Branches who have helped him in 
 the compilation of this skgtch, or have 
 contributed to its typographical or pic- 
 torial embellishment; and especially to 
 Mr. FALCONER MADAN, from whose 
 Brief Account of the University Press 
 at Oxford (1908) the historical details 
 here mentioned are derived. 
 
 OXFORD, December 1921.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 II. THE PRESS TO-DAY 
 
 The Press at Oxford .... 23 
 
 The Press in the War . . .33 
 Wolvercote Paper Mill . . 36 
 
 The Press in London . . .38 
 
 Administration ..... 40 
 
 Finance ...... 42 
 
 Oxford Imprints .... 45 
 
 Catalogues and Advertisement . . 49 
 The Press and its Authors . . .54 
 Bibles and Prayer Books . . .58 
 Clarendon Press Books 61
 
 7 
 
 III. THE PRESS ABROAD 
 
 India ...... 63 
 
 Canada ...... 67 
 
 Australasia ..... 68 
 
 South Africa 69 
 
 China . . . . 69 
 
 Scandinavia ..... 69 
 The United States . . . -7 
 
 IV. OXFORD BOOKS 
 
 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 no
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 HE 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 De- 
 cember, 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 pre- 
 cursor, 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 148 f ; soon after which date the first Press came to 
 an end. The second Press lasted from 1^17 until 15-20, 
 
 2467
 
 IO 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 SPHARA 
 
 CWTATIS 
 
 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 f l}niversitate Oxoniae or the like, some bear the 
 
 University Arms, and some 
 are issued with the express 
 privilege of the Chancellor 
 of the University. 
 
 After if 20 there is a gap 
 in the history, which begins 
 again in if8y. The Chan- 
 cellor 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 15*84 had ap- 
 pointed a committee De Libris 
 imprimendiS) and in i f 8 6 the 
 University lent /ioo 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 ifSrf), the first book with Hebrew type 
 (if 9 <*), Richard de Bury's Philobiblon, and Captain John 
 Smith's Map of Virginia. 
 
 Device used on the back of the 
 
 title of Sphtera Civitatis 
 
 Oxford 1588
 
 Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester Archbishop Laud 
 
 Dr. John Fell Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon 
 
 FOUR FOUNDERS OF THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH n 
 
 The first notable promoter of the Oxford Press was 
 Archbishop Laud, whose statutes contemplate the appoint- 
 ment of an Arcbitypographus^ and who secured for the 
 
 ( I ) Numb. i. 
 
 Oxford Gazette. 
 
 Publifhcdby Authority. 
 
 OxM. Niv.7. 
 
 day the Reverend Dr. wdttr BltaJforJ, War- 
 I den of tPfdbtm Ctlltdge in this Univcrfity, was 
 elected Ld. Bifhop of th See, vacant by tbc death 
 /of Dr. Polite Bilhop here, 
 
 Oxt*. IAv.ii. This Day His Majcfty inCounccl accord- 
 ing to the ufual cuftom, having the Roll of Sheriffs 
 preferred to him, prickcrl thcfe Pcrfons following to be 
 Sheriffs for the wccecding Year, in their refpeftive 
 Counties of England and *m/. 
 
 Art*. Bafil Brent, ft/jure. 
 
 ltdfird. Tho-.Snaggc. /. 
 
 Symon Bennet>/</. 
 Sir William Dalfton, B*rC 
 
 Sir lohn Arderne, H>ugbt . 
 
 Sir Tlio: Willis, %}. aid Birontt. 
 
 Tho: Dorrel, Efy. 
 
 lohn Kelland, Efy. 
 
 Roger Clavcl, Efo 
 
 Si: SatnueJ Sleigh, l&gbt. 
 
 Sir Francis Cobb, Kwifcr. 
 
 Sir Hcneagc Fcthtrflon, Barinet. 
 
 Sir Rkhard Cox, tortiut. 
 
 Sir lorathan Kcat, Barontt. 
 
 Tho: Rod, Efo 
 
 Sir Humphry Miller, Btre/ut, 
 
 Wilhim Spenrcu E W, 
 
 Cumberland. 
 
 ttfjier. 
 
 Cambridge. 
 
 Cornval. 
 
 Devon. 
 
 Dtrfet. 
 
 Derby. 
 
 Glecefter. 
 Hertford. 
 Hereford. 
 Kfltt. 
 
 La*(ti(Lei 
 
 fieur </< Caaillae having been puttodehby the Cora- 
 miflioners of the Grands laurs : It fcons they had laid 
 fome new Taxes or 1m pofit ions on thofc paro : Thtrc are 
 Troups marching againft them > and it is thought they will 
 foon be reduced . Mv Lord Aubigoy Lord Almntr to 
 hw Majcfty , hiving (ay en (klc fome :kne here of in Hy 
 dropHe attended with a Flux,u this week dead. 
 
 Purii ttovtmb : 18- The Marefcktl dt Turetnt am- 
 red here on Sunday lafi from the Frontiers j whence he 
 brines account chat the Succors intended againft the Prince 
 of MHtjlcr had patted in fmill parties, and that they had 
 been received <it M-teftricb: by MttftHr Bcvtring in the 
 name of the States General. 
 
 Cuerjtty t OXob. jo. Ycftcrday came into our Road 
 the Vnity Frigot Captain Trajford Commander, who 
 brought in a Prite Captain lobn Gilfon of flufbi/tgy be- 
 ing a Privateer of 7 Guns, and 45. Men. 
 
 Cbtttbam Nn : 4. Captain Ell'tit Comrnmder of the 
 Stfhire has taken ) Buflcs, two of tkmout offo at die 
 Dogger-fends, under the PnreSion of four of their Men 
 of War. In his paffage home, us faiaV, he faw fcvcral (ops 
 of Sliips,Mafts,&c. which feemed-to be the effects of fome 
 Wreck , which God be thanked we doe not hearc to 
 have been any of the E*gti(h Ships. 
 
 Of MI tJovtmb: n. Not knowing what accomptthe 
 Publick has hitherto received of tne Progrels of the 
 Prince of Munfter't Armes, we hivcihought it not im- 
 proper without further repetition,to give an account of fuch 
 places u be it pttftnl ftaiid* potfcft ofmtheEnc. 
 
 Upper part of the first page of the Oxford (now London) Gazette, 1665. 
 The oldest newspaper still existing in England 
 
 University in 1632 Letters Patent authorizing three 
 printers (each with two presses and two apprentices), and 
 in id 3 6 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 
 
 B 2
 
 Used in Burleu on Aristotle, printed at Oxford 1517 
 
 Used in 1585-93,1597-1600, at internals till 1635 
 
 Used in 1617-8, 1630-33, 1635-7, 
 arid 1640 
 
 Used at intervals jroni 1592-1638 
 
 "llsel'm 1628, and at intervals til 
 
 Used in 1630-4, 
 
 From tlwUniocrsitu Specimen, 1 
 
 OXFORD UNIVERSITY ARMS 
 
 Some ancient examples used bu the Oxjorl Ilmcersihi Prejs
 
 'these Armf were first used in
 
 H 
 
 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 
 
 From The History of Lapland by John Shefferus, 1674, the 
 first anthropological book published by the Press 
 
 the Laudian period were five editions of Burton's Anatomy 
 of Melancholy and one of Bacon's Advancement of Learning 
 in English. 
 
 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 Proclama- 
 tions 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
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH 15 
 
 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 
 
 cJhe, '&ro*pcl of 
 
 From W. MaundrelFs Journey from Aleffo to Jerusalem , 
 Oxford, 1703, engraved by M. Burghers 
 
 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
 
 16 HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 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 (167 j). 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 itf<*9 ? and began to issue the long series of books 
 which bear the imprint Oxoniae e Theatro Sheldoniano y 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 
 Historla 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.
 
 HJSTORIA 
 
 ET 
 
 ANTJQUJTATES 
 
 VNJVERSITATIS 
 OXONIENSIS 
 
 . c Theatre ShelJcnituif. M.DC JE.XX/V: 
 C
 
 i8 HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 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, 185-7; the whole 
 comprising over y,ooo pages and sold for .4 iox. Still 
 cheaper is the one-volume edition of 1843, in 1,366 
 pages royal octavo, the price of which is 2 is. 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 Black- 
 stone, 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 Three University Presses
 
 20 HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 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
 
 Q 
 
 & 
 O 
 
 UH 
 X 
 
 O 
 
 W 
 
 os 
 
 w 
 X 
 
 O 
 
 w 
 
 OS
 
 p ^ 
 
 s -I 
 
 j 
 
 CJO "3 
 
 S 5 
 
 ~ "3 
 
 o U
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH 21 
 
 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 founda- 
 tions 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 remem- 
 bered 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 : 
 
 4 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 
 
 i. The Press at Oxford 
 
 HE 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
 
 l&W&XttZXXfX^ 
 
 FELL 3 -line Pica 
 
 John Fell. 1689 
 Christ Church 
 
 FELL Double Pica 
 
 EARLIEST PRINTERS. The ecclesias- 
 tical and academical world probably 
 viewed printers at first with some 
 
 tixxxxxx^^ 
 
 FELL Great Primer 
 
 THE FIRST OXFORD BOOK. The first 
 book printed at Oxford bears the unmis- 
 takable date MCCCCLXVIII (14-68). Even 
 
 FELL Pica 
 
 THE SECOND OXFORD PRESS, 1^17-^0. The second press 
 is peculiar for its short and almost unrecorded work, and 
 for the entire absence of Theology among its products, 
 whereas in the first press Theology and Classics were about 
 
 xxxtxxzxxx^^ 
 
 FELL Small Pica 
 
 THE OXFORD PRESS, 1585- 
 1 669. The great feature of this 
 interesting period is the London 
 counterfeits of Oxford imprints, 
 the royalist publishers in London 
 
 FELL Brevier 
 
 OXFORD TYPES OF 1693. * c was ^ or 
 this reason rfiat when an edition of the 
 Lord's Prayer in more than a hundred 
 languages was published at London, in 
 1700 and 1713, pp. 9-^4 (two sheets), 
 containing Hebrew, Samaritan, Syriac,
 
 K&KXXXX^^ 
 
 MUSIC ' 
 
 Walpergen 
 
 
 -e- 
 
 Old face (based on Walpergen) 
 
 
 J 
 
 j 
 
 J / ' 
 
 n - ' - 
 
 
 
 
 * i 
 
 n II 4 ., 
 
 c 
 
 31 ' ' 
 
 \y b 
 
 
 
 
 II 1 
 
 J 1 
 
 
 t J 
 
 
 
 
 -A . 
 
 11 . ." 
 
 f 
 
 
 f 1 
 
 2vs*tta3tt3^^ 
 
 ROMAN AND ITALIC 
 
 English OLD STYLE 
 
 When I say that all governments are alike, I consider 
 that in no government power can be abused long. Man- 
 
 Pica 
 
 kind will not bear it. If a sovereign oppresses his people 
 to a great degree, they will rise and cut off his head. There 
 
 Small pica 
 
 is a remedy in human nature against tyranny, that will keep us 
 safe under every form of government. Sir Adam introduced the ancient 
 
 Pica NEW STYLE 
 
 Greeks and Romans. Johnson. ' Sir, the mass of both of 
 them were barbarians. The mass of every people must be bar- 
 
 Small pica 
 
 barous where there is no printing, and consequently knowledge is 
 not generally dijftised. Knowledge is diffused among our people by 
 
 Long primer. 
 
 our people by the newspapers.' Boswell's Life of Johnson, 1791. 
 
 When I say that all governments are alike, I consider that in no government 
 
 Bourgeois 
 
 power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it. If a sovereign oppresses 
 
 his people to a great degree, they will rise and cut off his head. There is a remedy 
 
 Brevier 
 
 in human nature against tyranny, that will keep us safe under every form of 
 
 government. Sir Adam introduced the ancient Greeks and Romans. Johnson. ' Sir, the 
 
 tX3WafcWa^ 
 
 2467
 
 jSKfcawaawsi^^ 
 
 ARMENIAN 
 Small pica 
 
 ARABIC 
 3-line bourgeois 
 
 @ gS GOOO 09 c^ 6 s 
 
 ODD OC| 3300 o5<^ 
 
 A.p^'f jmenpe 
 niKocjuioc ^ojcTe neq- 
 
 Pica 
 
 Long primer 
 
 OTonniien 
 
 &KXX&t!^^ 
 
 GREEK 
 
 English 
 
 VTTO TOV Trarpo?, 
 
 Eng. Porsonic 
 
 avrols rrjv eKacTTOV 
 
 Pica Scapula 
 
 rtjv excwrov yvu(riv 
 
 Pica 
 
 <j)d(7KCOV VTTO
 
 HIEROGLYPHS 
 
 3-line nonpareil 
 
 English (pointed) 
 
 Long primer (pointed) 
 
 Long primer (unpointed) 
 
 A/WWv2i/l| I I 
 
 RUSSIAN 
 Small pica 
 
 na HIIX-L He 
 
 Bourgeois 
 
 HMhltt Co.lhinoit UMblft 
 
 SLAVONIC 
 Great primer 
 
 HKCf . r a CTHTCA 
 
 SYRIAC 
 
 Pica (Estranghelo) 
 OCO 
 
 Long primer (Maronite) 
 
 
 Long primer (Nestorian) 
 
 QJDSU&ST eiGuQev) ^/euesr QauL 
 
 . QCi (7urriai rf^u^.Sar 
 
 
 D 2
 
 28 The TRESS at OXFORD 
 
 over one million pounds of metal, and includes some 5-70 
 different founts of type in some iyo 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 San- 
 skrit, 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 com- 
 positors are still daily engaged in setting the Oxford 
 Dictionary (with its twenty-one different sizes or charac- 
 ters of type), which has been slowly growing since 1882. 
 One compositor has a record of thirty-eight years' con- 
 tinuous 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
 
 Ancient Oak Frames in one of the Composing Rooms 
 
 The Upper Composing Room
 
 Monotype Casters 
 
 Ink-making
 
 The Old Machine Room 
 
 A Perfecting Machine with Self-feeder
 
 The Old Bindery (now a Warehouse) 
 
 One of the Warehouses
 
 The TRESS at OXFORD 29 
 
 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 adjust- 
 ment 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 expan- 
 sion 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 yth of August 1914 were turned out of their office 
 at an hour's notice to make room for a Base Hospital.
 
 30 The TRESS at OXFORD 
 
 Adjacent to the houses are the fire-proof Plate Room, 
 where some 75-0 tons of metal are stored, the Stereotype 
 and Electrotype Foundry, and the Monotype Rooms, a de- 
 partment 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 New Bindery 
 
 The Crypt 
 THE NAGEL BUILDING
 
 THE WAR MEMORIAL
 
 The TRESS at OXFORD 31 
 
 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. 
 
 This spirit is well shown by the history of the Press 
 Volunteer Fire Brigade, constituted in 1 8 8 f. 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 185-2; 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
 
 32 The TRESS at OXFORD 
 
 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 ?7f adult males were employed at Oxford ; 
 of these sixty-three, being members of the Territorial 
 Force, were mobilized at the outbreak of war j 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?* Case^ a series of essays closely and 
 dispassionately reasoned, and illustrated by official docu- 
 ments 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 
 
 47 E
 
 34 The TRESS 
 
 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. 
 
 4 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 j 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
 
 h 
 
 ^> 
 
 sj 
 
 u
 
 U 
 
 Pi 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 to
 
 in the WAR 35 
 
 appear, and not a few learned books were published. 
 A greater number, however, were placed in the Dele- 
 gates' 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. 
 
 E 2,
 
 9- Wofaercote Taper <JMill 
 
 first mention of paper-making in or near Oxford 
 A 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 1 8 70. 
 
 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 c 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
 
 Beater Room 
 
 Machine Room
 
 Paper Sorting 
 
 Paper Stock Warehouse
 
 WOLVERCOTE 37 
 
 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 j 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 1 9 1 6.
 
 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 agree- 
 ment 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 j the moral of the dis- 
 course 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 1880 these books, formerly sold by 
 Messrs. Macmillan, were taken over by the Manager of 
 the Bible Warehouse, Mr. Henry Frowde, who thus be- 
 came 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
 
 AMEN CORNER LONDON
 
 The TRESS in LONDON 39 
 
 the booksellers or booksellers' agents any Clarendon Press 
 book, any Bible or Prayer Book, any of the books pub- 
 lished 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 main- 
 tains 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 j 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 trea- 
 sured 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.
 
 if 
 
 y. The ^Administration of the 'Press 
 
 A~X 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 i7f7 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 j 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 Dele- 
 gates as a whole are enjoined by statute to c 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 By water, 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
 
 ADMINISTRATION 4 i 
 
 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 com- 
 pleted, which bears his name. The services of Sir William 
 Osier, Regius Professor of Medicine, and of Charles 
 Carman, of Trinity College, for over twenty years Secretary 
 to the Delegates, are noticed elsewhere in these pages. 
 
 The composition of the board on i 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 1)niversity^ in New Tork, W. W. Mclntosh, 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. 
 
 2467
 
 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 utiliza- 
 tion of profits made by the sale of its books or in a minor 
 degree from work done for outside customers. The main- 
 tenance of the Learned Press, with its output of scholarly 
 and educational books, many of which are in their nature 
 un remunerative, 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 Bo'oks ; 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 grow- 
 ing 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 pub-
 
 FINANCES 43 
 
 lishing 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 
 .70,000. 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 2 0,000. 
 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 sqven 
 years. 
 
 F 2
 
 44 
 
 FINANCES 
 
 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 
 
 imprints used by the Press as printers and as 
 JL publishers are various, and their import is not 
 always understood. Oxford at the Clarendon Press is his- 
 torically 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 e 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 c 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 Univer- 
 sity (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
 
 fimbolo apoftotoutm ad papam taut* 
 eitim Jmprefla CD^onie &t fmita A 
 no bommi . f\ cccc 
 
 teccmbtis 
 
 From the last page of the first Oxford 
 Sook.u68 (TiIfB) 
 
 4pjcp!ifif fentntaofa af q? (tudid 
 tti^na t.tjafirio ixttcrabilic (^leran 
 8ri (up terflH lib^ te aitima. ^lm<? 
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 Colonin m alma utnufjiatc (SD/cott* 
 (gnno marwacome 8mtt.f^cccci 
 
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 bmucratatccomcnft pctnu 3Ioanncm^cclac in 
 bicuioDtutTloanmjSbaptidcinojam traljentfj 3iu 
 
 Soffpl) Parties a(]p]ifntiow 
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 LUelsK 
 
 BELLOSITI DOBVNORVM 
 
 Excudebat W.r. Impcnfis Jf'.W. 
 clo 1 3 c x xv 1 1 1. 
 
 OXONI/E 
 
 1 o s r. p H i BARNES 
 tertiolduslanuarij. 
 
 Joseph Barnes' first imprint 
 
 CIVIL IDAR 
 
 Primed by His M A j E s T 1 1 s Command Printed by his Ma jcftics Command. 
 AT OX fO*D t Febru4rj 4.164.2. 
 
 Qenuing 
 
 Count trfclt: 
 
 O JiT O 3^. / /, 
 
 E TT*OGRA*HIA SHELDONIANA, 
 
 Anno Domini. M.DC.LX1X. 
 
 X N I Iy 
 E Theatro SHELDONIANO. 
 Dem. M. DC. LXX. 
 
 Printed at the THEATER in OXFORD, 
 and are to be fold by John jyllmtt, 1671, 
 
 [ The Theatre Imprint u>ent on till 1785 ]
 
 XO N I I, 
 
 E TYPOGRAPHEO CLARENDONI ANO, 
 
 OXFORD, 
 
 Printed for Thomas Wood at the Univerfity Printing-Houfe, 
 MDCCXXXVIII. 
 
 OXFORD, 
 
 PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. 
 
 M. DCC. LV1II. 
 
 OXFORD, 
 At the CLARENDON PRINT IN c-HousE. M.DCC.LIX. 
 
 IMPRINTS IN BIBLES 
 
 OXFORD. OXFORD, 
 
 At the THEATER 1^75. P"n* *r *** WIPERS ITT. 
 
 P R /NT R S. I 69 S. 
 
 OXFORD. _ 
 
 Printed by JOHN B4SKETT, Printer to the King's molt Excellent Majefty, for 
 GREAT BRITAIN: and to the UNIVERSSTT. MDCCXVII. 
 
 OXFORD, 
 
 PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS, 
 
 By WILLIAM JACKSON and WILLIAM DAWSON, Printers to the UNIVERSITY 
 And fold at the Oxford Bible Warehoufe, in Patemofter Row, London. 1795. 
 
 CUM PRiriLEGIO.
 
 4 8 OXFORD IMPRINTS 
 
 \ 
 
 Press publishes either universally or in certain parts of the 
 world. Among the bodies for whom the Press acts as pub- 
 lisher 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 Pub- 
 lisher 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 1 9 1 6 the first edition of the General Catalogue, 
 comprising over yoo 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 alpha- 
 betical index. 
 
 246?
 
 50 CATALOGUES & 
 
 The General Catalogue has in the second edition been 
 brought up to January 1920, and a third edition is in pre- 
 paration. 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 illustra- 
 tive 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 Ne w English Dictionary and 
 the Dictionary of National Biography , with their i y,ooo 
 and 30,000 pages, to the smallest and cheapest pamphlets 
 and schoolbooks. 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
 
 ^ADVERTISEMENT 5 i 
 
 necessarily requires revision as new publications accrue, 
 it is hoped that the Catalogue will not be treated as 
 * throw-away literature 3 . 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 book- 
 sellers, librarians, and other professional buyers, and the 
 unofficial Periodical addressed to amateurs. Number i 
 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 biblio- 
 graphical 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 c out of print ' which cannot be pro- 
 duced 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 j 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 1,071* pages in double column), the 
 
 G 2
 
 52 CATALOGUES & 
 
 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 cumula- 
 tive list of Price Changes^ or in the Bulletin j all of which 
 every bookseller has, or may have for the asking. 
 
 With the Bulletin is issued from time to time a supple- 
 ment 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 1 1 6 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 Claren-
 
 ADVERTISEMENT J3 
 
 don 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 popukr 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 
 4 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.
 
 p. The Press and its 
 
 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 remunera- 
 tion (or at least the direct remuneration ; for the publica- 
 tion of solid books, like the knowledge of Greek in 
 former times, 'not infrequently leads to positions of 
 emolument ') is recognized as being nominal, and neces- 
 sarily 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
 
 AUTHORS 55 
 
 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, c is 
 half sold already ' ; but the magnitude and variety of 
 its business enable the Press to maintain an elaborate 
 organization of c 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.
 
 THE HOLY 
 
 I B L E 
 
 Containing the 
 
 Old Teftament 
 
 And the New : 
 Tranflated out of the Original 
 
 Tongues and with the former Tranflations 
 diligently compared and revifed. 
 
 BY 
 His <?Majefties fpecial Command. 
 
 Appointed to lye read in Churches. 
 
 \ OXFORD. 
 
 At the THEATER 1675,
 
 THE ORDER OF 
 
 the Administration of 
 
 THE LORT>'S SUTTER 
 
 OR 
 
 HOLT CO^VI^MUNION 
 
 Together with the Orders of 
 
 CONFIRMATION 
 
 THE SOLEMNIZATION OF MATRIMONY 
 AND THE CHURCHING OF WOMEN 
 
 According to the Use of 
 THE CHURCH OF 
 
 Cum 
 
 Trivilegh 
 
 OXFORD 
 
 THE UNirERsrrr TRESS 
 
 MCMXI 
 
 H67 
 
 H
 
 To THE KINGS MOST 
 
 EXCELLENT MAJESTY , 
 10. Bibles and 'Prayer Booki 
 
 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 distri- 
 bution 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, con- 
 tinuous production, and intensive specialization. The 
 modern Bible is so convenient to read and to handle
 
 ,.' 'BIBLES and TRAYER 'BOOKS S9 
 
 that its bulk is not always realized ; it is actually more 
 than four times as long as David Copperfeld. 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 j 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 fashipns 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. 
 
 H 2
 
 y 
 
 N 
 
 * J3>eii 
 
 HOC E$T 
 
 NOVUM TESTAMENTUM 
 
 CopTiduM 
 
 descnpjlt, 
 Parifieiiiibn^ contain, 
 
 ct in LatinumJermonefTL ccmvertit 
 
 DAVID WILKINS 
 
 OXONII, 
 
 E Theatre $heldonianoc7t/pLS ef
 
 ir. Clarendon Press Booki 
 
 BY Clarendon Press Books are meant the learned, 
 educational, and other c 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 1 is. 6d. 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 c 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 175-0, of which some dozen copies (at 30.1-.) 
 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
 
 62 CLARENDON TRESS BOOf(S 
 
 neither wasted nor sold as remainders, and when a book 
 goes out of print, some natural tears are shed. 
 
 This is one end of the scale ; at the other are books 
 commanding a large and rapid sale, books like the 
 Oxford Book of English Verse or the Concise Oxford Dictionary 
 and livres de circonstance like Why We are at War^ which 
 was published in September 1914 and in a few months 
 went through twelve impressions and was translated into 
 six foreign languages. Books of this kind are produced 
 in mass, as cheaply as is consistent with a high standard 
 of workmanship, and are sold all over the world in 
 competition with rival publications and by the employ- 
 ment of appropriate methods of advertisement. 
 
 Between these two classes lies a great mass of 
 miscellaneous books, too general in character to admit 
 of description here. They are in many languages, 
 ancient and modern, of the East and of the West j of all 
 fields of knowledge, divine, human, and natural j and of 
 all stages of history from the Stone Age to the Great 
 War. It follows necessarily that Clarendon Press books 
 appeal to widely different publics and call for the applica- 
 tion of various instruments of distribution and publicity. 
 All, however, benefit by the widely diffused appreciation 
 of the standards of scholarship and of literary form which 
 the Press has set itself to uphold. The public expects 
 much of any Oxford book, and the satisfaction of that 
 expectation is often onerous ; but the necessary effort is 
 justified by the results * the Oxford book is half sold 
 already '.
 
 Ill 
 
 THE PRESS ABROAD 
 
 i. The Press in India 
 
 HE activities of the Press in India are of 
 relatively recent date. Until 1912, when 
 a branch was opened in Bombay, Oxford 
 books had been accessible only to those 
 who were determined to procure them. 
 The existence of a distributing centre 
 made it possible to reach more directly 
 the educational and the general public. But it early 
 became apparent to the Manager Mr. E. V. Rieu of 
 Balliol College that the educational needs of India 
 could only to a small extent be met by direct importa- 
 tion ; that it was necessary to adapt existing books to 
 the special requirements of the country, and to create 
 new books similar in kind. In the course of a few
 
 64 The TRESS in INDIA 
 
 years many such books were produced, at first chiefly 
 in England, but later to an increasing degree in India 
 itself. By 1918 at least a dozen native presses were 
 engaged in printing and binding for the Branch. These 
 books range from * simplified classics ' to editions of 
 Shakespeare's plays, from school geographies to hand- 
 books for students of medicine and law. At the same 
 time the sale of more advanced Oxford books was largely 
 increased. A brief description is given elsewhere of the 
 books produced at Oxford upon the history and art of 
 India as well as upon its classical literature and its 
 religions. Books like Mr. Vincent Smith's Early History 
 of India and his Fine Art in India command a wide sale 
 among the educated natives of India. 
 
 Another field of enterprise is in vernacular education. 
 Here the opportunities are vast, but the difficulties are 
 great, for in most provinces many languages are spoken, 
 and no one press is adequately equipped with the 
 numerous founts of type required to deal with the 
 vernaculars of India as a whole. The Branch was therefore 
 fortunate in being, in 1916, invited by the Government 
 of the Central Provinces to produce a series of Readers 
 in Hindi and Marathi for use in schools throughout the 
 province. At that time no paper could be imported 
 from England, and the staff of the Branch was depleted 
 by war. Nevertheless, within a year over half a million 
 volumes had been written, printed, and illustrated, and 
 were ready for distribution over a country nearly twice 
 as large as England and Wales. 
 
 The activities of the Branch in placing the issues of 
 the War before Indian readers in a true light attracted 
 in 1918 the attention of Government; and the Branch 
 was engaged by the Central Publicity Bureau to produce
 
 The TRESS in INDIA 65 
 
 an illustrated War Magazine and a mass of pamphlets in 
 English and the vernacular tongues. 
 
 In spite of these preoccupations the Branch has been 
 able to emulate the activities of the Press at home by 
 co-operating with learned bodies in India to produce 
 books of scientific value. Notable among its publica- 
 tions in this kind are the historical treatises of Mr. Rawlin- 
 son, Mr. Kincaid, Mr. Mookerji, and other writers, and 
 the economic studies published on behalf of the Uni- 
 versities of Bombay and Madras. 
 
 Mention may also be made here of the Classics of 
 India.n History which are being issued by the Press. In 
 reviewing the latest volume of the series Meadows 
 Taylor's Story of My Life The Times Literary Supple- 
 ment says : ' It is one of those books from which history 
 hereafter will be written. The great books in one 
 sense or other like Colonel Mark Wilks's Historical 
 Sketches of Southern India, Grant Duff's History of the 
 Mahrattas, Tod's Rajasthan, Broughton's Letters from 
 a Mabratta Camp, must be supplemented not only by 
 the native records, which are more and more becoming 
 accessible, but by the personal narratives of Englishmen 
 who lived in out-of-the-way places and entered into the 
 lives of the rural inhabitants of India. Beside Colonel 
 Sleeman's Reminiscences must be put the autobiography 
 of Meadows Taylor, a much superior book.' Of the 
 books mentioned by The Times, Sleeman's and Tod's 
 have already been issued, uniform with Meadows Taylor's, 
 Dubois's Hindu Manners, Bernier's Travels, Mrs. Meer 
 Hassan Ali's Mussulmanns, and Cunningham's Sikhs-, 
 editions of Grant Duff and Broughton are in preparation. 
 
 Mr. Rieu, when in 1919 reasons of health compelled 
 him to retire, had in a few years proved himself a real 
 
 x,^ i
 
 66 
 
 The TRESS in INDIA 
 
 pioneer. He had immensely increased the volume of 
 business done by the Branch, and had opened up new 
 and promising fields. His successor, Major G. F. J. 
 Cumberlege, D.S.O., of Worcester College, who was 
 accompanied by Mr. N. L. Carrington, of Christ Church, 
 took over a successful and growing business. The original 
 premises in Bombay had already been outgrown, and new 
 offices opened in Elphinstone Circle. 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 con- 
 fidently 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.
 
 }. The 'Press in ^Australasia 
 
 THIS part of the business was first developed by 
 visits regularly made from London by Mr. E. R. 
 Bartholomew, who in 1908 became manager of the 
 Branch then established at Cathedral Buildings, Melbourne. 
 Australia is not only many thousands of miles from the 
 great centres of book-production, but is itself a land of 
 great distances, as yet but sparsely populated ; and this 
 creates difficulties for both publishers and booksellers. 
 It is remarkable how far these obstacles have been 
 overcome ; and if regard is paid to the number and 
 character of the population, Australia, and New Zealand 
 no less, have a right to be proud of the quantity and 
 quality of the books they buy. 
 
 The Branch has paid attention to the special needs of 
 Australian education, and in co-operation with the 
 universities and schools has produced a number of 
 successful text-books. 
 
 It acts as agent for some of the leading British 
 publishers, including the houses of Murray, Heinemann, 
 Black, Chapman and Hall, and Mowbray; and for the 
 large publishing business of Messrs. Angus and Robertson 
 of Sydney.
 
 THE MELBOURNE BRANCH
 
 ir i rim 
 
 MARKHAM'S BUILDINGS, CAPE TOWN 
 in which the South African Branch is situated
 
 4 The 'Press in South ^Africa 
 
 South African Office of the Press is at Markham's 
 JL Buildings, Adderley Street, Cape Town. Mr. C. R. 
 Mellor, the present Representative, was appointed to that 
 post in March 1915-. From his office at Cape Town 
 Mr. Mellor visits the principal booksellers, not only in 
 the Cape Province, but in the Transvaal, the Orange 
 Free State, and Natal. 
 
 y . The 'Press in China 
 
 THE Chinese Agency of the Press is at C 447 Honan 
 Road, Shanghai, of which Mr. T. Leslie is the 
 present Representative. The first agent in China for 
 the Press was the Christian Literature Society of Shanghai, 
 the agency being started in 1913. Mr. Leslie, who had 
 been manager of that Society, took over the Press agency 
 in 1917. Stocks of all Oxford books likely to be in 
 demand in China are held in Shanghai. 
 
 6. The Press in Scandinavia 
 
 FOR many years before the war a traveller from 
 Amen Corner visited the Continent annually, but 
 business in Scandinavia developed so rapidly after the 
 Armistice that it was found desirable to open a Branch, 
 and premises were accordingly secured in Copenhagen, 
 Mr. H. Bohun Beet, the Continental traveller of the 
 Press, being appointed manager. The Branch was 
 opened in August 1920, at St. Kongensgade 40 H, 
 close to the King's Palace. The Branch represents also 
 Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton and the Medici Society.
 
 y. The Tress in the United States 
 
 sale of Oxford books in the United States began 
 A long before the foundation of the American Branch. 
 It is recorded that c the growth of the business was 
 hindered by the Civil War, but after the restoration of 
 peace it grew rapidly'; and that a landmark in its 
 progress was the publication of editions of the American 
 Book of Common Prayer. 
 
 The foundation of the Oxford University Press 
 American Branch, an institution which has made the 
 name of Oxford familiar throughout the Union, was due 
 to the foresight and enterprise of Mr. Henry Frowde. 
 Acting on his advice the Delegates of the Press authorized 
 the formation of a Corporation in the State of New 
 York, and the Branch in 1896 opened premises at 
 91 Fifth Avenue, under the management of the late 
 Mr. John Armstrong. In the following year Mr. Arm- 
 strong added to the Bibles and other books, previously 
 sold by Messrs. Nelson, the Clarendon Press publications, 
 previously sold by the Macmillan Company. The busi- 
 ness grew rapidly in Mr. Armstrong's hands, and in 1908 
 moved c up town ' to the premises it now occupies at 
 3 7 West 3 2nd Street. Mr. Armstrong died in 1915-, and 
 was succeeded by Mr. W. W. M c lntosh, one of the original 
 members of the staff. 
 
 The main function of the Branch has always been that 
 of keeping the American public acquainted with Oxford 
 books, both sacred and secular, and of supplying the
 
 THIRTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK 
 
 The New York Branch is situated in the 
 
 Central Building on the right
 
 Bible Show Room 
 
 Clarendon Press Show Room 
 
 SHOW ROOMS AT THE NEW YORK BRANCH
 
 UNITED STATES 7 i 
 
 books without avoidable delay. To this end it has 
 been necessary to hold large stocks in New York, and 
 to maintain an expert staff which is in touch with the 
 book-stores and with the universities, the schools, and 
 the book-buying public at large. The Branch has its 
 own catalogues and its own advertisements, and it has 
 been able to make Oxford Bibles and Clarendon Press 
 books known and valued throughout the United States. 
 The Branch, however, is not merely an importer ; it has 
 long recognized that many Oxford products are capable 
 of useful adaptation to special American requirements, 
 and that such adaptation is consistent with the preserva- 
 tion of what Americans have themselves called 'the 
 Oxford stamp'. This aspect of the activities of the 
 Press in America is shown by the large number of Bibles 
 which are manufactured ( c made ' is the American idiom) 
 in the United States among these the now famous 
 Scofield Reference Bible is conspicuous and also by 
 books written or at least rewritten for American 
 requirements. The Branch, in co-operation with American 
 scholars, has produced valuable series of text-books for 
 schools and universities the Oxford English Series, the 
 Oxford French Series, and the Oxford German Series. Even 
 more important, perhaps, are adaptations of Oxford 
 books of tried merit. Thus the Oxford Loose-Leaf Surgery 
 derives from a (British) Oxford original (one of the 
 Oxford Medical Publications], but has important differences 
 in substance as well as in its novel form. This very 
 successful work is now being followed by the Oxford 
 Loose-Leaf Medicine, edited by Dr. Henry Christian and 
 Sir James Mackenzie with the help of leading physicians 
 on both sides of the Atlantic. To promote co-operation 
 of this kind in medical science was a great part of the
 
 7 2 UNITED STATES 
 
 life-work of William Osier, who, as Regius Professor at 
 Oxford, and a leading promoter of the Oxford Medical 
 Publications, may be described as the founder of the 
 medical activities of the Oxford Press as they are now 
 carried on in Oxford, in London, in New York, and in 
 Toronto. 
 
 Another work of adaptation, now in progress, illustrates 
 further the possibilities of Anglo-American co-operation. 
 The Concise Oxford Dictionary of current English, adapted 
 from the great Oxford Dictionary, has been and is very 
 widely used throughout the British Empire and by 
 students of English in foreign countries. But its spelling, 
 and certain other features, were found to disqualify the 
 book for general use in the United States j and a special 
 American edition is now in preparation, the adapter of 
 which is Mr. G. Van Santvoord, of Oriel College, Oxford, 
 and Yale University. 
 
 The Press is publisher, on both sides of the Atlantic, 
 to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 
 many of whose books have been printed at Oxford. 
 Special mention may be made of the first volumes, printed 
 at the Press and recently published, of the British Section 
 of the great Economic and Social History of the World War 
 undertaken by the Endowment. These volumes are by 
 Professors Keith and Bowley and Mr. J. A. Salter.
 
 IV 
 
 OXFORD BOOKS 
 
 i. Oxford Series 
 
 T one time Oxford books were produced 
 almost always at the instance of an 
 author; and many Oxford books are 
 still so produced. A scholar having de- 
 voted, it may be, many years of his life 
 to a subject which he has made his own, 
 applies to the University Press for publi- 
 cation of his researches ; and such a claim is often admitted 
 as irresistible. In modern times, however, the need for 
 organization by the publisher has become increasingly 
 apparent. Many books which if published in isolation 
 would reach only a small public are found capable of 
 a wider usefulness when issued as part of a larger plan; 
 and thus the initiative in publishing passes more and 
 more into the hands of the professional commanding 
 the advice of a body of experts. School-books, reprints 
 
 2467 
 
 K
 
 74 OXFORD SERIES 
 
 of the Classics, text-books of the applied sciences, and 
 books of the nature of Dictionaries and Encyclopaedias 
 are now almost always conducted in this way by co- 
 operative enterprise. 
 
 The number of such homogeneous series promoted by 
 the Press during the last twenty years is large, even if all 
 school-books are excluded. Trie Oxford English Dictionary 
 (which is of earlier origin) bulks so large in the public 
 eye as somewhat to obscure all humbler enterprises ; but 
 it does not stand alone. 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 ; these books are now finding their 
 way into the second-hand catalogues and the collections 
 of connoisseurs ; the Oxford Library of Prose and Poetry is 
 a series of little books for fanciers, offering especially the 
 classics of the Romantic Revival in a form approximating 
 to that of the originals ; the Oxford Poets claim to be the 
 last word for accuracy of text, condensed yet fine printing, 
 and the lowest price compatible with these qualities ; the 
 Oxford Standard Authors offer the same texts as the Oxford 
 Poets, together with many prose classics, in a cheaper 
 form ; the average volume containing nearly 600 pages of 
 close yet legible print. Finally, the World"** Classics 
 furnish a collection of over two hundred of the most 
 famous English books in a very handy form, still 
 maintained in print as far as possible in spite of the costs
 
 OXFORD SERIES 7S 
 
 of production, which make it increasingly difficult to keep 
 any but the most popular books on sale in a cheap series. 
 
 None of these series has been created by the simple 
 expedient of taking an existing edition and sending it to 
 the printer a plan too commonly followed, as is well 
 known to every one who has ever investigated the text of 
 a well-known author, and has found that each edition 
 contains almost all the errors of its predecessors and adds 
 fresh errors of its own. The Oxford texts are the result 
 of the laborious co-operation of editor, publisher, and 
 printer, involving the choice of the most authoritative 
 original very often the collation of a number of printed 
 originals and sometimes of manuscripts as well expert 
 attention to the problems both editorial and typographical 
 of which the successful solution produces a well-designed 
 book, and finally scrupulous diligence in the elimination 
 of error. The substantial accuracy of Oxford texts is 
 widely recognized, and is known to be due to the united 
 vigilance of the editors, the publishers (themselves scholars 
 and sometimes editors), and the printers. It is less well 
 known how complex and difficult are the problems which 
 the modern editor has to solve. The scientific editing of 
 English texts is indeed a relatively recent growth, and 
 depends upon the application of principles which in the 
 field of Greek and Latin textual criticism have been 
 elaborated in the course of centuries. It is thus no accident 
 that the work done in English editing in the last five-and- 
 twenty years has been largely in the hands of scholars 
 trained in the Oxford school of Literae Humaniores y 
 and has synchronized with the production of the Serif to- 
 rum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis. 
 
 This series, now popularly known as the Oxford Classical 
 Texts, is the only large series of critical texts of Greek 
 
 K 2
 
 7 6 OXFORD SERIES 
 
 and Latin authors produced in recent times outside 
 Germany and able to hold its own in competition with 
 its great German rivals. The texts, which now fill nearly 
 eighty volumes and include the most important writers of 
 the c classical ' periods of Greek and Roman literature, 
 have been based upon much fresh examination of the 
 manuscript originals. Some of the editors, indeed, have 
 devoted years to this kind of investigation ; the labours 
 of Mr. Allen on the manuscripts of Homer and of Pro- 
 fessor Clark and Sir William Peterson on those of Cicero 
 have secured for their authors a permanent place in the 
 long history of classical scholarship. 
 
 The aim of the series is to give the best text which the 
 examination of the manuscripts in their relation to each 
 other affords, and to provide in a brief apparatus criticus 
 sufficient information to show the evidence on which the 
 editor has based his decision. Conjectural emendations 
 are mentioned in the notes when they are considered 
 plausible, but are not admitted to the text except where 
 they reach a high degree of probability. This principle, 
 which is mainly due to the authority of the late Ingram 
 Bywater, has commended itself in the course of years 
 even to those who were at first disposed to think it too 
 austere, and has greatly enhanced the permanent value of 
 the series, which before the war was finding its way into 
 Germany itself. A famous German publisher went so far 
 indeed as to address to Oxford (on the eve of the war) 
 a letter of remonstrance on the price of the series, which 
 was described as too low for its value. 
 
 The Oxford Library of Translations consists mainly of 
 prose versions of Greek and Latin authors. These have 
 not been made to order or in accordance with any single
 
 OXFORD SERIES 77 
 
 principle of translation, but have been produced at the 
 instance of scholars unable to deny themselves the satis- 
 faction of translating a favourite author. This, which is 
 perhaps the best guarantee of excellence, accounts for the 
 miscellaneous constitution of the series, which has been 
 enlarged by degrees as a happy conjunction of author and 
 translator chanced to present itself, and from the same 
 cause admits some interesting authors seldom or never in- 
 cluded in series of translations made upon a less elastic plan. 
 Another series of translations is the great collection of 
 the Sacred Books of the East, which was begun many 
 years ago by the late Max Miiller and reached its fiftieth 
 and concluding volume in 1910. The value of these 
 translations to Orientalists is shown by the steady sale, 
 which after forty years is still increasing, and by the 
 high prices asked for the few volumes which are now 
 unfortunately out of print. 
 
 History, and the subjects akin thereto, afford less scope 
 for homogeneous series than does the editing of ancient 
 and modern classical literature ; and it has been the 
 policy of the Press rather to secure monographs of unique 
 authority in special fields than to compile works of en- 
 cyclopaedic information. A few examples will serve to 
 illustrate the range and importance of the Oxford books 
 produced in this way which have become classics in their 
 subject : in the History of Antiquity, Sir Arthur Evans's 
 Scripta M/(?,SirEdward Maunde Thompson's Palaeography ^ 
 Vincent Smith's Early History of India ; in the Fine Arts, 
 Barclay Head's Historia Numorum, Vincent Smith's Fine 
 Art in India, Dalton's Byzantine Art; in Constitutional 
 History and Law, Anson's Law and Custom of the Constitution 
 and Law of Contract, Sir Courtenay Ilbert's Government of 
 India, Lord Bryce's Studies in History and Jurisprudence,
 
 78 
 
 Hall's International Law, Prof. Keith's Responsible Govern- 
 ment^ Sir Erskine Holland's Jurisprudence-, in British 
 History, Stubbs's Constitutional History of England, Free- 
 man's Norman Conquest, Sir Paul Vinogradoff's Villainage in 
 England and English Society in the Eleventh Century, Sir 
 Charles Oman's Peninsular War-, in European History, 
 Finlay's Greece, Hodgkin's Italy and Her Invaders -, in Geo- 
 graphy, Prof. Beazley's Dawn of Modern Geography and 
 Mr. R. L. Poole's great Historical Atlas. 
 
 Books of this kind best represent the type at which 
 Oxford has aimed in the historical and human sciences, 
 and it is to the promotion of such works that the resources 
 of the Press have in this field been most advantageously 
 applied. When, however, the progress of a subject and 
 the enthusiasm of an editor have combined to suggest 
 another way, the opportunity has been taken of organiz- 
 ing research upon a common plan. Notable results of 
 such combined endeavour are the Oxford Survey of the 
 British Empire and the Historical Geography of the Dominions 
 promoted by the late Prof. Herbertson and by Sir Charles 
 Lucas of the Colonial Office respectively. The former 
 work, containing in six volumes a general and a particular 
 survey of the geographical, economic, and administrative 
 aspects of the Empire and its constituent parts, was 
 completed within a short time and published within a 
 few weeks of the outbreak of the war. In an important 
 sense therefore it cannot become out of date, since it 
 affords a conspectus of conditions as they existed at the 
 culmination of the former age, to which it will always 
 be necessary to refer as a standard of comparison. The 
 other series, which is in seven volumes (comprising twice 
 as many separate parts), has had a longer and more 
 chequered history, the march of events since the early
 
 Shakespeare's 
 England 
 
 An Account of the 
 Life & ^Mann 
 
 of his AGE 
 
 Volume 
 
 ox. 
 
 Clarendon Press Oxford 
 
 In the Tercentenary Year 
 1916
 
 8o OXFORD SERIES 
 
 years of the century, when publication began, having 
 made necessary frequent revision and reconstitution. The 
 work is still in progress, and India has recently been 
 added to its scope. 
 
 A more recent collection arose out of the demand 
 during the war for a compendious survey of the history 
 of the belligerent powers. To satisfy the demand was 
 one of the pieces of war work undertaken by the Press, 
 and the evident usefulness of the volumes having survived 
 the war has led to the establishment of a series on a 
 permanent and wider plan, including Histories of the 
 Nations and treatises of similar scope on leading questions 
 of International politics. The series now covers France, 
 Belgium, Italy, Portugal, the Balkans, Serbia, Russia, 
 Prussia, China, and Japan, with books on the Eastern 
 Question, Diplomacy, Nineteenth-Century Treaties, and 
 other topics. Many of the volumes have been frequently 
 reprinted, and additions are in preparation. 
 
 Not the least interesting of Oxford books written by 
 a number of contributors on a uniform plan is Shakespeare's 
 England^ an Account of the Life and Manners of bis Age^ 
 published in two volumes in the centenary year 191 6. 
 The book contains an Ode by the Poet Laureate, a long 
 essay on the Age of Elizabeth by Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 and some forty special articles by the first authorities. 
 
 Another co-operative enterprise is the Oxford History 
 of Music, which in six volumes surveys the whole subject 
 from the beginning to the time of Wagner ; it is not 
 a collection of biographies, but a history of music as 
 such of origins, tendencies, and evolution. The authors 
 include the late H. E. Wooldridge, the late Sir Hubert 
 Parry, and Sir Henry Hadow, whose enlightened enthu- 
 siasm has done so much for the study of music in England.
 
 
 2. Oxford Booki on f t> e 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. These 
 books being very diverse have not been confined within the 
 limits of a series uniform in size or appearance; but 
 they have a real unity, and deserve it is believed to be 
 acquired as a whole by every library with any pretensions 
 to an imperial character. Among the most important 
 volumes may be enumerated Wakefield's View of the Art 
 of Colonisation , first published in 1849, Lord Durham's 
 Report on British North America, Cornewall Lewis's 
 Government of Dependencies ; and (among modern treatises) 
 Prof Keith's Responsible Government (in its present form 
 published as recently as 1912, yet already an established 
 classic), and the same author's Imperial 'Unity ^ Prof Eger- 
 ton's Federations and Unions, Sir Courtenay Ilbert's Govern- 
 ment of India. 
 
 The Press is so strong in books on India that it has 
 seemed well to issue a special catalogue bringing together 
 a mass of books which in the General Catalogue are 
 listed under a variety of subject-headings. These include 
 
 8467 L
 
 82 The EMPIRE 
 
 a large and important section published by the Press 
 under the patronage of the Secretary of State notably 
 the Imperial Gazetteer of India in twenty-six volumes, 
 the noble series of documents on the early history of 
 c John Company ' compiled at the India Office, and the 
 sumptuous publication of Sir Aurel Stem's discoveries in 
 Turkestan; but they include also a whole library of 
 books produced by the Press at its sole charges and 
 dealing with the history of India from the Empire of 
 Asoka to the formulation of Dyarchy, with the geography, 
 politics, and economics of modern India, and with the 
 religion and literature, the fine art, and the music of 
 Hindostan. The production by the Press in India itself 
 of vernacular and other educational books has recently 
 made great progress. (See also p. 6$ for some notice of 
 the series of Classics of Indian History.)
 
 }. The Oxford Standard 
 
 THE standard of scholarship, accuracy, and literary 
 excellence which the Delegates maintain in the books 
 published under their authority is believed to be as high 
 as that attempted by any other publisher in the world. 
 Its maintenance imposes upon the Delegates much labour 
 and expense; but the effort is repaid in the reputation 
 which Oxford books enjoy in the public estimation. 
 The supervision exercised by the Delegates, both per- 
 sonally and through their advisers, is not limited to the 
 initial judgement passed upon a book offered to them 
 for publication; it extends through the whole process 
 of revision in manuscript and in proof. When a book 
 is favourably considered, an expert's detailed report is 
 very often laid before the author, who is asked to 
 consider the suggestions made and to confer with the 
 Delegates' advisers; and this process of scrutiny is 
 frequently far-reaching, the criticism being invited at 
 one stage or another of a number of specialists in various 
 fields. In this way many, perhaps most, of the books 
 produced by the Press have received substantial improve- 
 ment; and not a few have undergone something like 
 transformation. To these benefits abundant testimony 
 is borne in the prefaces of authors; more, perhaps, 
 reposes in the archives in Walton Street. 
 
 The technical services rendered to scholarship by the 
 Clarendon Press proof-readers are likewise commemorated 
 in many a preface. The late Mr. J. C. Pembrey, who in 
 
 L 2
 
 8 4 OXFORD STANDARD 
 
 1847 read Wilson's Sanskrit Grammar, and in 19 id read 
 Prof. MacdonelPs Vedic Grammar for press, was well 
 known to three generations of Oriental scholars ; the late 
 Mr. W. F. R. Shilleto did much to secure accuracy and 
 uniformity in the series of Oxford Classical Texts ; and 
 Mr. George Ostler has left the marks of his vigilance 
 upon many editions of the English classics. Long train- 
 ing in a severe school develops unusual powers; and 
 authors are sometimes startled by instances of what seems 
 beyond natural acumen. An author who had mis- 
 quoted Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis in the 
 usual form, was naturally astonished when the reader 
 inquired in the margin e Should it not be et wo/?', which 
 is of course unmetrical. The reader was right, neverthe- 
 less ; but the source of his information remained obscure. 
 In fields less recondite than this the authority of the readers 
 is generally recognized ; many editors have confessed 
 that in the matter of Greek accents they should not 
 think of disputing it. 
 
 The attention thus paid to the claims of scholarship 
 and accuracy brings doubtless unmixed benefits to learn- 
 ing and education. To the Press as a business concern 
 the blessing is less unequivocal. The Delegates' resources 
 are not without limits $ and they are sometimes embar- 
 rassed by the ambitions of learned authors from all parts 
 of the world, to whom nothing but the imprint of the 
 Clarendon Press seems an adequate reward. They are 
 obliged to pick and choose, and sometimes to decline 
 a proposal which would attract them if it had fewer 
 rivals. Another imputation is less deserved. A dis- 
 tinguished 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 c all
 
 OXFORD STANDARD 85 
 
 these Fellows talked Latin ' ; and the public is sometimes 
 frightened away from an Oxford book by the apprehen- 
 sion 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. No one need be afraid that an Oxford 
 book on any ordinary subject will be any more abstruse 
 than another book, though its facts will perhaps be better 
 authenticated and its arguments more closely reasoned. 
 The booksellers know this ; and in reply to a customer's 
 inquiry c ls this a good book?' have been heard to reply 
 4 Why it 's an Oxford book '. 
 
 Another fallacy which dies hard is that Oxford books 
 are dear. This is perhaps no more than a hasty inference 
 from the fact that Oxford produces an exceptionally 
 large proportion of books which from their nature 
 cannot be cheap. No one would expect to buy Liddell 
 and Scott's Greek Lexicon, or the Index Kewensis, for 
 a few shillings; but these books and many like them 
 are really inexpensive, if regard is paid to the number 
 of words they contain. The Oxford Dictionary itself 
 is sold at an almost nominal price. Many of the books, 
 however, which appeal to a narrow public are properly 
 priced higher than if they could be sold in large numbers ; 
 for the price of a book depends mainly upon two things 
 the number of words it contains and the number of 
 people who will buy it. The art of publishing lies in 
 nothing so much as in estimating whether a book is more 
 likely to sell say, 770 copies at ij\r. or j-,ooo at p-. The 
 policy of the Press has always been elastic in this respect ; 
 and very many of its books are among the cheapest in 
 their kind.
 
 I 
 
 o 
 
 '5 
 D 
 
 CJ 
 
 I 
 bfi 
 
 C 
 
 CQ 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 -o 
 
 i 
 
 "8 
 
 G 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 1
 
 EccePiterJrucJus, acl quas liu)i ip*e Mag isle r, 
 Et Paler itwitant,2<. bene. notas Amor- 
 
 <Scepe. titta eft raptos crtidelis BetuJa males, 
 ut devites* verbcra carpe <Puer. 
 
 T.W. 
 
 From Lily's Latin Grammar, Oxford
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE WALL 
 
 One of the drawings by Henry Ford from A School History of England 
 by C. R. L. Fletcher and Rudyard Kipling, 1911 
 
 3467 
 
 M
 
 4- Illustrated 
 
 THE publication by the Press of beautifully illustrated 
 books is mainly a development of comparatively re- 
 cent years, and it has been furthered by the progress 
 of collotype printing at Oxford. The catalogue now 
 includes a large number of sumptuous monographs on 
 artistic subjects. In its facsimiles of manuscripts and rare 
 printed books, published on its own account or for the 
 British Museum, the Press has done much to make 
 accessible to scholars the treasures of the great collections. 
 Well-known examples are the magnificent collotype re- 
 production of the New Testament part of the Codex 
 Sinaiticus (from negatives made at St. Petersburg under 
 the old rdgime ; negatives were fortunately made of the 
 Old Testament part as well, and the reproduction of the 
 whole of this most famous of all manuscripts will before 
 long be completed) j and the complete collotype repro- 
 duction of the Shakespearian corpus, consisting of the 
 Folio of 1623, which went out of print on publication in 
 1912, and the Poems and Pericles from the first editions, 
 still on sale. 
 
 The Press has also published very numerous reproduc- 
 tions of works of art of all kinds, partly by way of illus- 
 trated catalogues of special collections or genres (such as 
 the three folio volumes of Oxford Drawings by the old 
 masters, the numerous coin catalogues, and the cheap col- 
 lection of British Historical Portraits in half-tone) j partly 
 in the form of profusely illustrated monographs, which 
 moreover are all scientific works by experts and not mere 
 collections of pretty pictures with illustrative letterpress.
 
 ILLUSTRATED 'BOOKS 91 
 
 These works are of great importance to students and 
 collectors, and a select list is appended : Head's Historia 
 Numorum, Gardner's Ancient Coinage, Beazley's and other 
 books on Greek Vases, Hill's Renaissance Medals, Dalton's 
 Byzantine Art, Maunde Thompson's Palaeography, Murray's 
 History of Chess, ffoulkes's Armour and Weapons, Rivoira's 
 Moslem Architecture, Vincent Smith's Fine Art in India, 
 Sir Aurel Stein's Khotan and Serindia and other special 
 works on Eastern Art, the important series of mono- 
 graphs on English Church Art written or edited by the 
 late Francis Bond, with his comprehensive Introduction to 
 English Church Architecture in two volumes, and many 
 more too numerous to cite, particularly the great wealth 
 of British Museum catalogues. A very welcome recent 
 accession to the catalogue is supplied by the sumptuous 
 monographs on Italian Masters produced by the Harvard 
 and Princeton University Presses. 
 
 The use of illustration is, however, by no means con- 
 fined to facsimiles and works on the arts. The modern 
 productions of the Press have made an increasing use of 
 illustration both as an embellishment and as a medium of 
 information. School-books in particular are now lavishly 
 illustrated with portraits, maps, diagrams, and other re- 
 productions, often either of modern photographs or of old 
 cuts and engravings carefully chosen, so that the actual 
 men and things of former times may be faithfully 
 mirrored. 
 
 The Press prints for the British Museum and other 
 London collections, as well as for the Ashmolean Museum 
 at Oxford, very large numbers of postcards in collotype, 
 by means of which a knowledge of our national art 
 treasures is being widely spread. 
 
 M 2
 
 y. Official ^Publications 
 
 THE Press prints for the official purposes of the Uni- 
 versity the 'University Gazette (recording the official 
 Acts and Agenda of the University), the annual Calendar 
 (primarily a list of the members of the University), the 
 Statuta e Universitatis and the Examination Statutes (both 
 published every year), and a number of smaller pamphlets 
 &c. giving special information. The numerous and far- 
 reaching changes, made necessary by the war and the fruits 
 of the war, have hitherto precluded the republication of 
 the useful and popular Oxford 'University Handbook, last 
 published in 1915*. Meanwhile, the pamphlet of General 
 Information (on admission, residence, scholarships, and 
 some examinations) will be found valuable by those, at 
 home and abroad, who wish to form a general conception 
 of the opportunities afforded to students and the require- 
 ments which they must fulfil. 
 
 There are many other official books, both utilitarian 
 and antiquarian. Employers and others have often 
 occasion to inquire what places a member of the Uni- 
 versity obtained in the class-lists. The information, not 
 always available elsewhere, is given, from the beginning 
 to 1900, in the Historical Register of the 'University, and 
 for the years 1901-20, in the Supplement to "that work 
 recently published. Benefactors and others interested 
 in University Finance are directed to the Abstract of the 
 Accounts of the 'University and Colleges published annually. 
 Other publications of local usefulness include the Oxford
 
 OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS 
 
 93 
 
 'University Pocket Diary for the academical year, and the 
 terminal list of all Resident Members of the 'University 
 (with addresses, telephone numbers, &c.). 
 
 The University twice during the war printed its Roll 
 of Service, and in 1920 published the third and de- 
 finitive edition: it contains the names, fourteen thousand 
 five hundred and sixty-one in number, of those members 
 of the University who served in the Military and Naval 
 forces of the Crown. The names of those who gave their 
 lives, two thousand four hundred and seventy-four in 
 number, are distinguished by heavy type. 
 
 The Oxford 'University Almanack has been printed 
 annually since 1674, and of the illustrations since 17 id 
 the Press possesses the original plates. By far the greater 
 number are still on sale. Many of the recent plates are 
 of great interest and beauty; those for 1906-10, and 
 that for 1918, are collotypes from drawings made for 
 the Almanack by Mr. Muirhead Bone ; most of the later 
 issues are chromo-collotypes reproducing water-colour 
 drawings, preserved at Oxford, by J. M. W. Turner and 
 other artists of his time. 
 
 The historical books dealing with Oxford and published 
 by the Press include Mr. Madan's Oxford Books, c 1468 '- 
 1 6 5-0, a work much esteemed by bibliographers; Mr. 
 Shad well's Enactments in Parliament (concerning Oxford, 
 Cambridge, Winchester, Eton, and Westminster); Mrs. 
 Poole's three volumes (one is out of print) of illustrated 
 catalogues of Oxford Portraits (all these published for, 
 or in co-operation with, the Oxford Historical Society); 
 and, in a lighter vein, Mr. Lamborn's popular Story of 
 Architecture in Oxford Stone and handy guides, written by 
 experts, to the Bodleian, other Oxford Libraries, the 
 Ashmolean Museum, the University Museum (of Natural
 
 94 OFFICIAL -PUBLICATIONS 
 
 Science), and the picturesque Degree Ceremony (by the 
 Warden of Wadham). The Press offers also a History 
 of Oxford Rowing, and the collected Orationes of the late 
 Public Orator, Dr. W. W. Merry, perhaps the only 
 man of modern times who could make a Latin speech 
 intelligible to an audience of undergraduates and ladies. 
 
 Lord Curzon's work on "University Reform published 
 in 1909 is still on sale.
 
 6. The Oxford English "Dictionary 
 
 THE work described on its title-page as A New 
 English Dictionary on Historical Principles, and long 
 known familiarly as N.E.D. or Murray's Dictionary, but 
 now generally as the Oxford Dictionary, has a continuous 
 history of more than half a century. It was in 185-7 
 that Dean Trench (afterwards Archbishop Trench) laid 
 the foundation of the work by calling the attention of 
 the Philological Society to the inadequacy of all existing 
 English Dictionaries. He pointed out that thousands of 
 words which had become obsolete, but remained in the 
 national literature, had either escaped the diligence of 
 lexicographers or had been excluded by the limitations 
 of their plan ; and in especial that no dictionary gave 
 any account of the history of words and their senses ; in 
 none was it ascertained when a word was first used, when 
 (if obsolete) it had last been used, and how its senses had 
 been developed. 
 
 The members of the Philological Society threw 
 themselves eagerly into the plan proposed for supply- 
 ing these deficiencies, and an army of volunteers set 
 about the systematic examination of the whole body 
 of English literature. At length a dictionary was 
 projected (in place of the supplement first suggested, 
 which it was realized would be much larger than the 
 works it was designed to supplement), and Mr. Herbert 
 Coleridge was appointed editor. Fresh volunteers were 
 enlisted, and the work made progress. But it could
 
 96 ENGLISH DICTIONARY 
 
 hardly have taken shape without the tireless industry 
 and indomitable courage of the next editor, Dr. Furnivail, 
 who saw, but did not shrink from, the immense pre- 
 paratory labours yet to be faced. Furnivail realized 
 that an English Dictionary could not be made until the 
 roots of the language could be examined in the mass of 
 our early literature, which was then hardly known ; and 
 to provide this essential he founded in 1864 the Early 
 English Text Society the long list of whose publications, 
 still growing, may be read in the Clarendon Press 
 Catalogue. 
 
 But even the enthusiasm of a Furnivail did not avail 
 to prevent a growing sense of despondency, when the 
 work seemed to lengthen out indefinitely with no promise 
 of performance. No private publisher could be found 
 to undertake a work so vast. It was decided to 
 invite the co-operation of the Clarendon Press. The 
 Philological Society and Dr. James Murray, who had 
 thrown himself into the work with an energy equal to 
 Furnivall's own, and was by acclamation designated as 
 editor, entered into negotiations with the Delegates of 
 the Press, and an agreement was signed. 
 
 It is fortunate that the magnitude of human under- 
 takings is seldom perceived by those who engage upon 
 them. Coleridge had intimated that it would be time to 
 begin the Dictionary when a hundred thousand quotations 
 had been pigeon-holed. The efforts of Furnivail and 
 Murray brought the total to three and a half million 
 quotations, selected by thirteen hundred readers from the 
 works of five thousand authors. The work of accumula- 
 tion has gone on for forty years since, and to-day the 
 Dictionary contains about one and three-quarter million 
 printed quotations, selected from a greatly larger number.
 
 ENGLISH DICTIONARY 97 
 
 Dr. Murray himself agreed with the Delegates for a work 
 of between tf,ooo and 7,000 pages. The total will exceed 
 iy,ooo. He expected to complete the book in ten years 
 with a small staff. To-day, thirty-five years after printing 
 began, the work, to which Murray himself contributed 
 more than 7,000 pages, is being carried on by three 
 editors with twelve assistants ; and the end is not yet. 
 
 It is impossible to value too highly the services of 
 voluntary helpers from the beginning to the present day. 
 The completeness and accuracy of the work, which is 
 probably without a rival in any country or in any age, 
 could not have been secured except by editors of the 
 greatest learning and ability and by the training of 
 a lifetime j but these qualities would not have availed if 
 the work had not been founded upon inductive investiga- 
 tions of a range never before attempted. For the wealth 
 of the materials made available our gratitude is due to 
 readers not only in the United Kingdom but in all parts 
 of the world, and notably in the United States of America, 
 where the Dictionary is regarded with affectionate 
 admiration as the common achievement of the English- 
 speaking people. 
 
 Valuable, however, as the work of these voluntary 
 helpers has been, an even larger debt of gratitude is due 
 to the faithful labours of the editorial staff of assistants, 
 some of whom can trace back their term of service to the 
 earliest years of the undertaking. To their acumen, 
 vigilance, and zeal have been and are due in large measure 
 the completeness of the evidence and the correctness of 
 detail in the presentation of words and their meanings. 
 
 Dr. Murray with his staff moved to Oxford in 1885-, 
 and there the work has been continuously carried on, 
 
 3467 N
 
 98 ENGLISH DICTIONARY 
 
 partly in the Scriptorium attached to Dr. Murray's house, 
 partly (and in recent years wholly) in the Old Ashmolean 
 Building^ next door to the old Sheldonian Press and 
 within a stone's throw of the Bodleian. Here, as 
 a section of the alphabet comes to be treated, the 
 material is sifted, extracts from it are put in order, fresh 
 investigations, often laborious, are undertaken to settle 
 etymologies and doubtful points in the history of a word ; 
 copy is prepared for the printer, and references are 
 checked. The complete preparation of the material in- 
 volves researches of the most varied nature, some of 
 which lead the editors even beyond the confines of our 
 own language to novel and important discoveries. 
 
 The scope of the Dictionary, in the form which it finally 
 assumed, is thus stated in the preface to Volume I: <The 
 aim of this dictionary is to furnish an adequate account 
 of the meaning, origin, and history of English words now 
 in general use, or known to have been in use at any time 
 during the last seven hundred years. It endeavours (i) to 
 show, with regard to each individual word, when, how, in 
 what shape, and with what signification, it became English; 
 what development of form and meaning it has since re- 
 ceived ; which of its uses have, in the course of time, 
 become obsolete, and which still survive ; what new uses 
 have since arisen, by what processes, and when : (2) to 
 illustrate these facts by a series of quotations ranging 
 from the first known occurrence of the word to the latest, 
 or down to the present day ; the word being thus made 
 to exhibit its own history and meaning: and (3) to treat 
 the etymology of each word strictly on the basis of 
 historical fact, and in accordance with the methods and 
 results of modern philological science.' 
 
 As the history of many English words begins with
 
 GATEWAY OF THE OLD ASHMOLEAN
 
 ENGLISH DICTIONARY 
 
 99 
 
 the Anglo-Saxon period, and the * first known occurrence ' 
 may be as early as the seventh century, the period actually 
 covered by hundreds of the articles in the Dictionary is 
 one of ten, eleven, or twelve centuries. 
 
 The extent to which the aim of the Dictionary has been 
 accomplished is not yet so widely known as it ought to be. 
 Many discussions as to the origin, history, and meaning 
 of words are carried on in newspapers and periodicals 
 which could be decided at once by a reference to the 
 Dictionary. Inquirers spend much of their own and 
 others' time, and in the end write to one of the editors, 
 in quest of information which has for years been avail- 
 able in the published volumes. Nor is it solely the 
 student of language who can profit by the use of the 
 Dictionary, although in this respect it is of unique value 
 both for English and Continental philologists. Every 
 scholar and scientist is likely to find in it some fresh light 
 upon his own subject, for many special points in the history 
 and terminology of the various sciences have for the first 
 time been elucidated in its pages. 
 
 The reputation, however, of the Dictionary is now so 
 widely spread that it would be superfluous to call witnesses 
 to its unique qualities and its profound usefulness. In the 
 legislature and in the law courts, as well as in the library 
 and the market place, its ruling on the meanings and use 
 of words is accepted as final. Nor is the range of the 
 work limited in this respect to the usage of the United 
 Kingdom; it embraces all forms of the language sanc- 
 tioned as standard by literary use, wherever English is 
 spoken and written. 
 
 For these arid other reasons no proper comparison can 
 be made with any other English dictionary 5 but the 
 magnitude of the result may none the less be gauged by 
 
 N 2
 
 ioo ENGLISH DICTIONARY 
 
 means of these. Taking one of the ten volumes as a basis 
 of comparison, the seventh, comprising words beginning 
 with O and P, has nearly 49,000 words (of which over 
 j-,000 are obsolete and nearly 2,000 are naturalized aliens). 
 No other English dictionary has more than 27,000 words 
 beginning with O and P. When comparison is made 
 of the number of illustrative quotations, the difference 
 is overwhelming; Vol. VII has 175^000 quotations, and 
 no other dictionary has much more than 20,000 for the 
 same sections of the alphabet. 
 
 If it is thought that, great as the work is, it has taken 
 an inordinate time to produce, comfort may be taken 
 from the fate of comparable enterprises abroad. The 
 great Deutsches Worterbuch started by the brothers Grimm 
 in 1838 began to be printed as long ago as 1871, and 
 thus had a start of over thirty years ; but though it is 
 only some two-thirds of the scale of the Oxford book, 
 there still after sixty-seven years remains about a sixth to 
 do. The Dutch Woordenboek is less advanced, and the 
 dictionary of the Swedish Academy has not passed the 
 letter D. 
 
 The state of the work to-day is that of the ten 
 volumes nine are published, and of the tenth (Ti-Z) 
 substantial parts are complete, namely Ti-Ty, and V, 
 X Y Z, and the first sections of U and W. The end, 
 however, is not so near as might be thought ; U is a large 
 section, and W is in many respects the most difficult letter 
 in the alphabet, consisting as it does almost entirely of 
 words of Teutonic origin, and therefore of obscure ety- 
 mology and complicated history. A lexicographer makes 
 light work of parallelepiped and supralapsarian^ it is when 
 he comes to words like -wealth and work, war and
 
 ENGLISH DICTIONARY 101 
 
 wild and wilful^ that his powers of discovery and of 
 discrimination are seriously taxed. 
 
 Sir James Murray (he was knighted in 1908) died 
 26 July 19 1 j. His ambition to see the completion of 
 the work on his eightieth birthday in 1917 was not 
 fulfilled, and even if he had lived to devote to it his 
 amazing powers of application, could not have been 
 fulfilled. He lived, however, to see the end of his life- 
 work in sight, and more than that of any other man his 
 name will be associated with the long and efficient 
 working of the great engine of research. The volumes 
 produced by him have characteristic excellences which 
 cannot be exactly matched, though they may be rivalled 
 by merits of another kind. 
 
 The work is now carried on by three editors, working 
 independently on different sections of the alphabet. 
 Dr. Henry Bradley, whose period of work on the Dic- 
 tionary now rivals Murray's in point of time, is by 
 common consent the greatest of living English philologists. 
 He has been an editor since 1888. Professor W. A. 
 Craigie, who has been an editor since 1901, and Rawlinson 
 and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon since 19 itf, brings 
 to the work of the Dictionary a rare combination of 
 qualifications. He is especially eminent as a Scandi- 
 navian scholar. Mr. C. T. Onions, appointed an editor 
 in 1913, has been on the staff since 1895-. He is also 
 known to scholars as the author of the Oxford Shakespeare 
 Glossary and for his editorial part in Shakespeare* s England. 
 
 The London Goldsmiths' Company contributed /y 
 towards the cost of the sixth volume of the Dictionary, 
 the title-page of which records their generous support. 
 Apart from this the whole of the editorial and manu-
 
 102 ENGLISH DICTIONARY 
 
 facturing cost of the work has been borne by the Dele- 
 gates of the Press, who have defrayed from their general 
 revenues a heavy annual outlay for many years. This 
 has necessarily risen since the war, and it is fortunate that 
 so large a part of the work had been completed under 
 conditions less onerous than now obtain. 
 
 The price of the Dictionary has been kept very low, 
 the sections being published at the rate of 2s. 6d. for 
 sixty-four pages or less than a halfpenny per page con- 
 taining on an average over 300 lines of type and nearly 
 3,000 words. Few books have ever been sold at so 
 low a rate. The prices of volumes and half volumes 
 stoutly bound in leather have necessarily been advanced 
 in recent years to meet the enhanced cost of manu- 
 facturing; but the price of the Dictionary is still no 
 more than nominal, if regard is paid to the outlay 
 precedent to the actual manufacture of the books. 
 Sections in paper wrappers, issued after 1920, will be 
 priced at the rate of 5- s. for sixty-four pages ; but it is 
 not proposed to raise the price- of the bulk of the work 
 in this form. 
 
 The London Times in 1897 described the Dictionary 
 as c the greatest effort which any University, it may be 
 any printing press, has taken in hand since the invention 
 of printing. ... It will be not the least of the glories of 
 the University of Oxford to have completed this gigantic 
 task '. 
 
 Lord Curzon in his Letter to the 'University of 1909 
 wrote : c In the staff of the English Dictionary alone the 
 Press contributes to the University what is probably 
 the largest single engine of Research working anywhere 
 at the present time.'
 
 
 7- Dictionary of National "Biography 
 
 THIS, the largest of all national collections of 
 biography, owes its existence to the enterprise and 
 munificence of the late GEORGE SMITH, who founded 
 it in 1882. The work was produced by the co-operation 
 of a large number of scholars acting under the direction of 
 the late Sir LESLIE STEPHEN, with whom was afterwards 
 associated Mr. Sidney. Lee ; and the latter half of the 
 work was produced under Sir SIDNEY LEE'S sole editorship. 
 It was produced in sixty- three quarterly volumes, 
 1887-1900, the arrangement being alphabetical ; and the 
 lives of those who died too late to be admitted in their 
 alphabetical place were included by the issue of three 
 supplementary volumes, which brought the work down to 
 the death of Queen Victoria and just past the close of the 
 nineteenth century. The sixty-six volumes were later 
 reissued, with corrections, on thinner paper, three volumes 
 being converted into one; and this edition in twenty- 
 two volumes constitutes the main dictionary from the 
 earliest times to the close of the Victorian era, in the 
 form now on sale. It contains, in rather more than 
 30,000 pages, some 30,000 lives, each equipped with 
 a select bibliography. The roll of contributors includes 
 many famous names ; conspicuous among the articles are 
 those of Sir Leslie Stephen himself, which are models of 
 form and substance, and those of the present Regius 
 Professor of Modern History at Oxford, Dr. C. H. Firth, 
 whose Life of Cromwell is an acknowledged classic.
 
 io 4 Tke Z). 
 
 Continuing the work of the founder, Mrs. George 
 Smith undertook a Supplement covering the years 1901- 
 1911, which was produced by Sir Sidney Lee in 1912-13. 
 This, as the first of a series of twentieth-century volumes, 
 inaugurated what may be regarded as a second and 
 distinct work. 
 
 Further, in 1903 was published in one volume an 
 Index and Epitome to the Dictionary, giving within 1,5-00 
 pages 30,000 succinct biographies. The value of this com- 
 pendium, to the very large non-professional public to 
 whom the main work in twenty-two bulky volumes is not 
 readily accessible, need not be emphasized. It has been 
 thought proper, however, to lay stress upon its usefulness 
 as an independent work of reference, which may fairly 
 be expected to take its place, upon thousands of shelves, 
 along with other compendious dictionaries and encyclo- 
 paedias ; the Index and Epitome, therefore, along with 
 the Index and Epitome to the Supplement of 1901-11, 
 bound with it, is now issued under the short title of 
 Concise Dictionary of National Biography. 
 
 The Dictionary of National Biography, with the 
 responsibility for its maintenance, was offered to the 
 University of Oxford in 1917 and gratefully accepted. 
 Work is now in progress on a further decennial 
 supplement covering the years 1912-21. This supple- 
 ment will be edited by Mr. H. W. Carless Davis of 
 Balliol and Mr. J. R. H. Weaver of Trinity. The 
 Supplement of 1901-11, the Concise Dictionary, and many 
 volumes of the main work, have recently been reprinted 
 from plates ; and the sale of the work shows an improve- 
 ment when compared with the years preceding the war. 
 Whether it will in the future be found practicable to 
 attempt the systematic revision of the main work must
 
 The D. 3. S. 
 
 10 5 
 
 still remain in doubt. The manufacturing expense of a 
 new edition would be very heavy, and could be justified 
 only by searching investigations, leading to a very sub- 
 stantial gain in accuracy, which must occupy years and 
 involve a further heavy expenditure. The total outlay 
 required has been estimated at /i 00,000, and this perhaps 
 could not be defrayed without the munificence of a second 
 founder. It may, however, be hoped that such a work 
 will not at last languish for lack of funds. Meanwhile, 
 under the direction of Mr. H. W. CARLESS DAVIS, the 
 Delegates' adviser upon the Dictionary, preliminary work 
 is being steadily carried on. Subject-indexes have been 
 prepared ; a bibliography is in hand of the biographical 
 literature which has accumulated since the publication of 
 the Dictionary; and various special investigations are 
 being made into periods for which the work is especially 
 in need of revision. When it is remembered that a whole 
 army of scholars was continually at work upon the 
 material of the New English Dictionary for more than a 
 quarter of a century before the first page was sent to 
 press, it will be seen that the material of the Dictionary of 
 National Biography may have to be newly surveyed with 
 something or the same elaboration, if that Dictionary is 
 ever to be rebuilt from its foundations. 
 
 2467
 
 8. The Oxford '^Medical ^Publications 
 
 IN the year 1907 a Joint Committee was formed 
 between the Oxford University Press and Messrs. 
 Hodder and Stoughton, under the Directorship of 
 Mr. Humphrey Sumner Milford and Sir Ernest Hodder 
 Williams, which had for its object the production of 
 Medical, Surgical, and Scientific books, under the general 
 title of the c Oxford Medical Publications '. 
 
 The Committee were peculiarly fortunate in having 
 the invaluable advice and assistance, in the choice of 
 Authors and Subjects, of the late Sir William Osier, 
 Regius Professor of Medicine in the University of Oxford, 
 and a Delegate of the Press. 
 
 The key-note of the Oxford Medical Publications has 
 always been the practical character of the treatment. 
 The popular Medical Manuals, Monographs, and the 
 ( General Practitioner Series ' have now a world-wide 
 reputation, and include a large number of standard works, 
 such as Diseases of the Heart, and Principles of Diagnosis 
 and Treatment in Heart Affections by Sir James Mackenzie, 
 A System of Operative Surgery by F. F. Burghard, C.B., 
 Common Disorders and Diseases of Childhood by G. F. Still, 
 Practical Obstetrics by Professor E. Hastings Tweedy, Guide 
 to Gynaecology in General Practice by Comyns Berkeley and 
 Victor Bonney, The Practitioner's Encyclopaedia of Medical 
 Treatment, The Practitioners Encyclopaedia of Medicine and 
 Surgery.
 
 MEDICAL "PUBLICATIONS 107 
 
 By the acquisition in 1908 of Mr. Young J. Pentland's 
 business, leading Text-books by the most eminent Scottish 
 authors were incorporated, including such well-known 
 books as Cunningham's Text-book of Anatomy and Manual 
 of Practical Anatomy^ Muir and Ritchie's Manual of 
 Bacteriology, Thomson and Miles's Manual of Surgery, 
 Waring's Manual of Operative Surgery, Thomson's Outlines 
 of Zoology. 
 
 The Oxford Medical Publications were awarded the 
 Grand Prix at the seventeenth International Congress of 
 Medicine held in London in 1913. This award was 
 bestowed for the general excellence of the Students' books 
 produced in the Series, and for the production of new 
 and original work therein. 
 
 In 1916 the Committee sustained a great loss in the 
 death of their Editor, James Keogh Murphy. A further 
 heavy loss was sustained at the end of 1 9 1 9 by the death 
 of Sir William Osier, whose advice and assistance had 
 always been of inestimable value. After the death of 
 Mr. Murphy, the Editorship was temporarily undertaken 
 by Lieut-Colonel Sir D'Arcy Power, who was responsible 
 for several important additions to the Series, including the 
 well-known Oxford War Primers of Medicine and Surgery. 
 Towards the close of hostilities Captain Robert McNair 
 Wilson, M.B., Ch.B., late Assistant to Sir James Mackenzie 
 under the Medical Research Committee, became Editor, 
 and under his direction further important additions have 
 been made, including Menders of the Maimed by Professor 
 Arthur Keith, Studies in Neurology by Henry Head, 
 Operative Treatment of Chronic Intestinal Stasis by Sir W. 
 Arbuthnot Lane, Diagnosis and Treatment of Venereal 
 Diseases in General Practice by Brevet- Colonel L. W. 
 Harrison, D.S.O., Plastic Surgery of the Face by Major 
 
 o 2
 
 io8 MEDICAL TUBLICATIONS 
 
 H. D. Gillies, C.B.E., R.A.M.C., War Neuroses and Shell 
 Shock by Sir Frederick Mott, K.B.E., Trench Fever by 
 Lieut.-Colonel W. Byam, O.B.E., Clinical Ophthalmology for 
 the General Practitioner by A. Maitland Ramsay, and Tropical 
 Ophthalmology by Lieut.-Colonel R. H. Elliot, I.M.S. 
 The present Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, 
 Sir Archibald Garrod, is a Delegate of the Press and an 
 Oxford author. 
 
 The Oxford Catalogue now devotes many pages to the 
 medical list, and the American Branch, by the publication 
 of the encyclopaedic < loose-leaf Oxford Surgery, has pro- 
 duced an important and valuable adaptation of a British 
 original. In the Quarterly Journal of Medicine the Uni- 
 versity possesses one of the most valuable scientific 
 journals in the world ; and in the other medical publi- 
 cations it administers what is at once a valuable property 
 and a powerful instrument of education. Oxford medical 
 books are known wherever English is spoken.
 
 p. Oxford Books for Boys and Girls 
 
 THE more recent activities of the Press include a 
 notable enterprise, started by Mr. Henry Frowde 
 jointly with Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton, but now 
 carried on by Mr. Milfbrd alone. This was the foundation 
 in 1907 of a new department for the issue of educational 
 works for elementary schools, and of c gift-books ', use- 
 ful and recreative literature, for young people of all ages. 
 The Oxford Reading Books, which headed the list, set 
 a new literary standard for books of the class ; and the 
 series established itself not only in this country but in 
 parts of the Empire so remote and so diverse as Australia 
 and Burma. It was followed by further series of reading 
 books, and of books on history, geography, arithmetic, 
 nature study, and other subjects of the elementary curri- 
 culum. The part taken by the Press in the educational 
 system of the English-speaking world may now be said 
 to comprehend the whole scholastic field from the infant 
 school upwards. 
 
 Concurrently with the school publications, the T. De- 
 partment, as it is known for convenience, has issued from 
 Falcon Square a great variety of books for the leisure 
 hours of boys and girls. These include finely illustrated 
 editions of classics, such as Robinson Crusoe, Grimm's Tales, 
 Kingsley's Water Babies^ Alice in Wonderland ; books on 
 nature, science, industry, imperial history; miscellanies 
 both instructive and entertaining ; stories for boys, girls, 
 and young children ; and for the very youngest, picture 
 books of all kinds. 
 
 All these publications are edited with care, and both 
 on the literary and on the artistic side a high level of 
 excellence is aimed at. Some two million copies of the 
 books are distributed during the year.
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Part of the first lines of the Great Charter of the University granted 
 by Charles I on March 3, 1635/6, in which the printing privileges, 
 first granted on Nov. 12, 163*1 were finally confirmed and settled. 
 The large initial C contains a portrait of the King in his robes. 
 The original is preserved among the University Archives. The 
 portion relating to Printing is reproduced in full in Madan's Oxford 
 Sookf, vol. ii, pp. 516-30. . . ... . Frontispiece 
 
 Device used on the back of the Title of Sphtera Chitatit, Oxford 1588 
 
 Page 10 
 
 Four Founders of the Oxford University Press : Robert Dudley, Earl 
 of Leicester j Archbishop Laud j Dr. John Fell ; Edward Hyde, 
 Earl of Clarendon ........ Facing i o 
 
 The Old Congregation House (interior), Domus Typographica. The 
 first printing-house owned by the University, used not for the pro- 
 cess of printing, but for storing Oriental type and printing furniture, 
 and assigned to this object by Convocation on June 3, 1651. 
 Until the opening of the Sheldonian Theatre in 1669 the actual 
 printing was done in the private houses of the University Printers 
 
 Facing l I 
 
 Upper Part of the first page of the Oxford (now London) Ga^tte, 1665. 
 
 The oldest newspaper or periodical still existing in England . Page 1 1 
 
 Oxford University Arms. Some ancient examples used by the Oxford 
 
 University Press between 15 17 and 1786. . . . Pages 12, 13 
 
 Illustration from The History of Lapland by John ShefFerus, 1674, the 
 
 first anthropological book published by the Press . . . Page 14 
 
 ' The Prospect of Aleppo.' From W. Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo 
 
 to Jerusalem, Oxford 1703, engraved by M. Burghers . . . Page 15 
 
 Title-page of Anthony Wood's ffistoria et ^fntiquitates Uni-versitatis 
 
 Oxoniensis, published in 1674 . . . . . . . Page 17 
 
 The Three University Presses : The Sheldonian Theatre j The Clarendon 
 
 Building; The Press of to-day . ,. . . . , . . Page 19 
 
 The Quadrangle of the University Press at Oxford . . . Facing 20 
 
 Fire-place in the Delegates' Room, Clarendon Building; Grinling 
 
 Gibbons Fire-place in one of the London Offices . . Facing 21 
 
 Specimens of Fell Types (see p. 15) . . . . .,., . Page 24 
 
 Specimens of old Music Types and of present-day Roman and Italic 
 
 Founts . . . . . . . . .';". page 25 
 
 Specimens of Greek, Hebrew, Russian, Slavonic, Oriental, and Hiero- 
 glyphic Types . . , , . ';' ... Pages 267
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS m 
 
 Ancient Oak Frames in one of the Composing Rooms; The Upper 
 Composing Room; The Monotype Casters j Ink-making; The 
 Old Machine Room; A Perfecting Machine with Self-feeder; 
 The Old Bindery ; One of the Warehouses . . Between 18 and 19 
 The Nagel Building : the New Bindery and the Crypt . . Facing 30 
 The War Memorial. ........ > 3 1 
 
 Wolvercote Paper Mill; Rag-sorting; Rag-cutting; Rag-boiling; Rag- 
 breaking ; Beater Room ; Machine Room ; Paper-sorting ; Paper 
 Stock Warehouse ....... Between $6 and 37 
 
 Amen Corner, London .... .... Facing 38 
 
 Examples of Oxford Imprints, fifteenth to eighteenth centuries . Pagts 46-7 
 Title-page of the First Oxford Bible, 167 > . . . . . Page ^6 
 
 Title-page of the Altar Service used at the Coronation of King 
 
 George ,1911 . . Page 5 7 
 
 Title-page of David Wilkins's Coptic New Testament, published in 1716 
 
 Page 60 
 The Bombay Branch ........ Facing 66 
 
 The Toronto Branch ......... ,, 67 
 
 The Melbourne Branch v . . . . . . . ,,58 
 
 The South African Branch . '. '. . . . 69 
 
 The New York Branch . . . . . . . . 70 
 
 Show Rooms at the New York Branch . . . . . ,,71 
 
 Title-page of Shakespeare's England^ published in 19 \6 . . . Page 79 
 
 Specimen of Work done by M. Burghers, Engraver to the University 
 
 about 1700 .......... Page 96 
 
 Specimen of Work done in the Studio of the Clarendon Press to-day 87 
 Illustration from Lily's Latin Grammar, Oxford 1691 . . . . 88 
 
 One of the drawings by Henry Ford for -rf School History of England 
 
 by C. R. L. Fletcher and Rudyard Kipling, 1911 . . . Page 89 
 
 Gateway of the Old Ashmolean. The Editorial Staff of the Oxford 
 English Dictionary now carries on its work on the lower floor of 
 this building .......... Facing 98 
 
 The Headpieces and Initials on pp. 9, 23, 58, 3, and 73 are taken from 
 Clarendon's History of ttx Rebellion (1701'), the Bodleian Catalogue of 1738, 
 and other early books printed at the Oxford Press. 
 
 The Fell Ornaments on pp. 33, 36, 38, 40, &c., are those used in Sir 
 Thomas Hanmer's edition of Shakespeare, published in 1744. 
 
 The illustration on p. i ri is from Thomas Hearne's edition of Roper's Life of 
 Sir Thomas More published at Oxford in
 
 Va<i. Bourn vet. 
 
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