THE
OXFORD
University Press
Cini^ ^C>Gtth^ IpapW J^iuiCn CiHitthbx .^
tufca oalw.lvVicwxuA tc^i
cry and ^ok>TLattCu s CHttu3 Wxauc ct ^Ou
iUi Ltvana nu;
, .tid * IHmuxC
Xuicct(itat"OWti uon ofyuuv
INITIAL FROM THE GREAT CHARTER OF THE UNIVERSITY,
Granted by Charles I to confirm and settle printing privileges
which had been hrst granted in 1631. See p. in
t
SOME ACCOUNT
OF THE
OXFORD
University Press
i 468-1 92 i
OXFORD
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 Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY
THE AUTHOR desires to exprefi
his grateful thanks^ to all those
members of the Staffs of the PreJS and
its Branches who have helped him in
the compilation of this skejtch, 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
I. HISTORICAL SKETCH . .9
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 . . .70
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
I
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 14^8 ; 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;-; soon after which dace the first Press came to
an end. The second Press lasted from 15-17 until 15-20,
2467
10
HISTORICAL SKETCH
SFH/ERA
IVITATiS
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 j4lma ^niv ersitate Oxoniae or the like, some bear the
University Arms, and some
are issued with the express
privilege of the Chancellor
of the University.
After 1 5" 20 there is a gap
in the history, which begins
again in 15* 8 5-. 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
imprimendu^osA in 15% 6 the
University lent ^100 to an
Oxford bookseller, Joseph
Barnes, to carry on a press.
In the next year an ordinance
of the Star Chamber allowed
one press at Oxford, and one apprentice in addition to
the master printer. Barnes managed the Press until 1 6 1 7,
and printed many books now prized by collectors, among
them the first book printed at Oxford in Greek (the
Chrysostom of 15-86), the first book with Hebrew type
(15-96), Richard de Bury's Philobiblon, and Captain John
Smith's Map of Virginia.
Device used on the back of the
title of Sph<era 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
The first notable promoter of the Oxford Press was
Archbishop Laud, whose statutes contemplate the appoint-
ment of an ^rchitypographus^ and who secured for the
^ f
Oxford Gazette.
Publiftied by Authority.
Oxo*. Nov.j.
i day the RcvercndDr. w<tt Blaadfard* War-
den of Wtdham Colltdge in this Univerfty, Vf as
ckftcd Ld. Bifliop of this Sec> vacant by the death
of Dr. PMtJiK Bithop here.
Orw. Jfrv.ii. This Day His Majcfty in Counccl accord-
ing: to the ufual cuftom, having the Roll of Sheriffs
preTcntcd to him, pricked thofe Pcrfons following to be
Sheriffs foe the foccccding Year, their rcfpe&vc
Counties of En&lMd and wdes.
Berks.
tedfrd.
Cbejter.
Cambridge.
Cornvml.
Pet/o*.
Dorfet.
Derby.
Bifil Brcnr, /fYc.
Tho: Snaggc. Eft.
Svmon Bennet,/7.
Sir William Dalfton, Binnt^
Sitlohn Ardcrne, t(>ugbe.
Sir Tl: WUIis, f^t.
Tho: Dorrel, Efy.
Gtocefter.
Hertford.
Hereford.
Roger Clavcl, Efa.
Si; Samuel Sleigh,
Sir Francis CoWj, Knight.
Sir Hencagc Fctherfton, Bartntt.
Sir Richard Cox, Zaroiut.
Sir lonathan Kcac, Baronet.
Tho: Rod, Efo
Sir Humphry Miller,
four de Canillae having been put to deKh by the Cora-
miflioners of the Grands law : It fccms they had lal
fomc new Taxes or Impofitions on thofc parts : There are
Troups marching againft them , and it is thought they will
fbon be reduced . My Lord Aubigty Laid Almvur to
hw Mijcfty , hiving liven Gek fame :ime here of an Hy*
dropfx attended with a FIux, this week dead.
Parts Mvembi 18. The MArefcbal de Turnnt arri-
ved here on Sunday lad from the Frontiers , whence he
brines account chat the Succors intended againft the Prince
o:'M**j?<rr had pa0ed in (null parties, and that they hid
been received at Mieftricbt by MttptHr Be vtritg in the
name of the States Genera!.
Guerjttyy QStob. jo. Yeftcrdiy came into our Road
the Viuty Frigot > Captain Trafford Commander, who
brought in a Prize Captain loin G'tlfon of Fln{bi*g t be-
ing a Privateer of 7 Guns, and 4 j. Men.
CkAtthamtfwi 4. Captain //: Commwder of the
Sifbin has taken ; Bulfcs, woof them out offo at the
DoggeT-ffuls* under the Prect&on of four of their Men
of War. In his oaffage home, tis faid? he (aw fcvcral tops
of Ships,Mafts,&c. which fcetned- to be the effeds of fomc
Wreck , which God be thanked we doc not hearc to
have been any of the E.igli(h Ships.
OXM: Novemb'.ii. Not knovriiig what accompt the
Publidc has hitherto received of the Progrefs of the
Prince of Munfter's Armes, we havethoughnt not im-
proper without further repetition,to give an account of fuch
plaJcs.u be at pteftnt (laixb potfeft 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 163 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 O^Jbrd 1517
Used in 1585-93,1597-1600, & at interoals till 1635
Used in i6af-8, 1630-33, 1635-7,
and 1640
Used at intervals jrorn 1592-1638
Used in 1626, and at intervals Hi]
Used in 1630-4 , 1636-8 ,
From tnellniucrsity Specimen, i
OXFORD UNIVERSITY ARMS
Some ancient examples usei Inj tlie Oxford llnbcrsitu TVejs
These Armf wen first used, in
i 4 HISTORICAL SKETCH
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
&ro&pcl of Jll&ppo.
ag.i.
From W. MaundrelFs Journey from Aleppo 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 (1677). In 1 6 7 1 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 1 66 9, and began to issue the long series of books
which bear the imprint Oxoniae e Theatro Sheldoniano, or
in the vulgar tongue Oxford at the Theater. These
imprints, indeed, were still used, at times, long after
the Press had been moved from the Sheldonian to its
next home in the Clarendon Building. Many learned
folios were printed at this time, including pioneer work
by Oxford students of Oriental languages; the book
best remembered to-day is no doubt Anthony Wood's
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.
HISTORIA
ET
ANTIQUITATES
VNJVERSITATIS
AOXONIENSIS.
2467
. c ThcAtro ShclAcnia.no. M.DC LXXTV.
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 f,ooo pages and sold for .4 io/. 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 tneir 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 4 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
2
X
o
06
a,
X
h
w
O
2 o
J J
_Q <U
3 -S
fco o
tjo -
^ ^H
TJ 3
Q
^
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2 Si
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o
u
"5-
u
HISTORICAL SKETCH 21
have long served as a quarry for successive editors. The
New English Dictionary began to be publishe'd 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 Caiman, 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. 77?? Tress 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
aftsaswwKW
FELL 3 -line Pica
John Fell. 1689
Christ Church
aS25B&&^^
FELL Double Pica
EARLIEST PRINTERS. The ecclesias-
tical and academical world probably i
viewed printers at first with some |
^^^^^^^^^^^
FELL Great Primer
THE FIRST OXFORD BOOK. The first I
book printed at Oxford bears the unmis- |
takable date MCCCCLXVIII (1468). Even
^^^$2^K3^
FELL Pica
THE SECOND OXFORD PRESS, 15*17-2,0. 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
t^&XXZX^^
FELL Small Pica FELL Brevier
^THE OXFORD PRESS, 1585- & OXFORD TYPES OF 1693. It was for
>6p. The great feature Of this % this reason that when an edition of the
interesting period is the London & ^ ord ' s Pra y er ^ more than a hundred j
/ P c/ -,. c , . . . ft languages was published at London, in
counterfeits of Oxford imprints, N T?0 5 a e nd iyi ^ pp . 9 _ i4 (two sheets)) j
the royalist publishers in London n containing Hebrew, Samaritan, Syriac, ;
g |
IZXXXXXX^I^^
FXX&XZK^^
Walpergen MUSIC
y i} 4
I
fa n 1 T
1
J A v
N
H> u I
9 a u
d
J
Id face (based on Walpergen)
t J J J !
1 n i
i i i
rj b * 4 \ Q
J J r
1 i J
Y k 1
.
J *
J * J
5 * 1 <.
.
f
J I 1
f A f F f 1 rt
.
if
t 1 1 I
Lr T T
rr rr
XG&KXZX^^
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 s
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 diffused. 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
2467
D
ti&3SV^X&^^
ARABIC ' ARMENIAN
3-line bourgeois < Small pica
/r /y/y//7< /A( uibutlth ( /)
uim mi . nn
itui-htnlfbuiliui'b It If tub p
&a^tf^^^
BENGALI BURMESE
}@p5coooo9oq?
CHINESE
niKocjutoc
Pica
Long primer
gin*, ovonmfien
English
(f)do~KG)V V7TO TOV TTOLTpOS,
Eng. Porsonic
avrols TTJV eVoaroy
Pica Scapula
rrjv excLcrTcv yvuriv
Pica
(|>d(rK(OV
fcrafcEttaawKfc^^
HEBREW
English (pointed)
$ B^ xn? n
HIEROGLYPHS
3-line nonpareil
Long primer (pointed)
D s :U23 IBto -IB* ^K D31Dm
Long primer (unpointed)
eyuEKEXimi
SANSKRIT
RUSSIAN
Small pica
na Hirxt ne
Bourgeois
6oju,in6ft
SLAVONIC
Great primer
HEH. A CTHTCA
SYRIAC
Pica (Estranghelo)
Long primer (Maronite)
* ..rs ^ -
Long primer (Nestorian)
Small pica
^dF ^/
Brevier
r *-* * > C
bbKRWQK^^
D 2
28 The PRESS at OXFORD
over one million pounds of metal, and includes some
different founts of type in some 15-0 different characters,
ranging from the hieroglyphic and the prehistoric
4 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 5 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 5 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 fth 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 Raom,
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
c 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 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 y. 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 575- adult males were employed at Oxford ;
of these sixty-three, being members of the Territorial
Force, were mobilized at the outbreak of war ; and of
the remainder some 293 enlisted in 1914 or later.
Considering the number of those who from age or other
causes were unfit for service, the proportion of voluntary
enlistment was high. The London Office and Wolvercote
Mill also gave their quota to the service of the Crown.
Those who were obliged to remain behind were not
idle. The Oxford historians at once engaged in the
controversy upon the responsibility for the War ; and
in September 1914 the Press published Why We are at
War: Great Britain?* 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
2467 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.
< The Clarendon Press/ writes Sir Walter Raleigh in his
Introduction to the Oxford 'University Roll of Service,
4 though deprived of the services of virtually all its men
of military age, was active in the production of books and
pamphlets, most of them written by Oxford men, setting
forth the causes and issues of the War a mine of
information, and an armoury of apologetics.'
Not the least of the services rendered by the Press was
the printing done for the Naval Intelligence Department
of the Admiralty directed by Admiral Sir Reginald Hall.
Both secrecy and speed were essential to the usefulness of
this work, and to secure them the Printer to the University
made special arrangements involving a severe strain upon
himself and those to whom the work was entrusted.
Admiral Hall, when unveiling the Press War Memorial in
October 1920, declared that the work done was unique
in kind, and that without the help of the Press the
operations of his Department could not have been
carried out with success.
As the War dragged on, the numbers employed at the
Press steadily declined ; the demands of Government as
steadily increased ; the shortage of materials of all kinds
became more and more acute. None the less the Bible
Press met an unprecedented demand for the New
Testament by supplying within three years four and
a half million of copies for use in the field. The Learned
Press, too, continued to produce, though the volume of
production became less and less. The machinery of the
Dictionary, though its movement was retarded, never
came to a standstill. The scientific journals continued to
H
J
u
fc/j
c
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
?. Wofaercote Taper
first mention of paper-making in or near Oxford
is a story of one Edwards, who about 1670 planned
to erect a mill at Wolvercote and was encouraged by
Fell. In 1718 Hearne the antiquary wrote that <some
of the best paper in England is made at Wolvercote
Mill '. It was bought by the Press in 1870.
The Mill stands on a branch of the Thames, on the
edge of the quiet village of Wolvercote, and near the
ruins of God stow 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 5 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; 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 ; 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 1884 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.G. 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 c quire' department from which books
in sheets are given out to his own or other binderies, and
in Aldersgate Street a bindery from which many of the
finest Bibles and other leather books are turned out.
The offices at Amen Corner are the centre of the selling
activities of the Press ; from them is directed the policy
of the branches of the business at home and abroad. An
institution so far-flung naturally causes some confusion
in the public mind. Inquiries from India have sometimes
been addressed to New York, and Mr. Horace Hart 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.
?. The ^Administration of the Tress
AJL 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 175-7 the statute promoted by Sir William Blackstone
for the better management of the Press established the
principles of continuity and of expert knowledge by the
constitution of Perpetual Delegates-, and these principles
have been maintained.
The Delegacy is now composed of the Vice-Chancellor
and Proctors for the time being ex officio, and (normally)
of ten others, of whom five are Perpetual. Delegates are
appointed for a term of years by the Vice-Chancellor and
Proctors, by whom they may be re-elected ; but when a
vacancy occurs among the perpetual Delegates, the 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 Bywater, Frederick
York Powell. Within the last few years the Press has
sustained very heavy losses in the death of some of the
most experienced of its Delegates. William Sanday, Lady
Margaret Professor of Divinity, took an active part in the
many works of profound learning upon New Testament
criticism, by which Oxford has maintained its fame for
the prosecution of Biblical learning. Henry Tresawna
Gerrans, Fellow of Worcester College, was active in
financial administration and in the organization of
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
Cannan, 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. T. White, Dean of Christ
Church ; Sir Archibald Garrod, Student of Christ Church
and Regius Professor of Medicine ; Cyril Bailey, Fellow
of Balliol College; H. E. D. Blakiston, President of
Trinity; and N. V. Sidgwick, Fellow of Lincoln.
The principal officers are : in Oxford, R. W. Chapman,
Oriel College, Secretary; J. de M. Johnson, Exeter College,
Assistant Secretary ; F. J. Hall, Printer to the 'University ;
in London, Humphrey Milford, New College, Publisher to
the 'University ; in New 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
IT^OR some two centuries from the time of Fell the
JL 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
unremunerative, depends and has always depended upon
the profitable management of the publications of the Press
as a whole. In the last century the revenue devoted to
learning was supplied mainly from the sale of Bibles and
Prayer Books ; but changing conditions led the managers
of the Press to the conclusion that if the promotion of
education and research were to keep pace with the 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
8-0,000. The revised edition of Liddell and Scott's
reek Lexicon, upon which the Delegates embarked some
years before the war, is now estimated to cost 20,000.
These are enterprises in the successful conclusion of which
the honour of the University is concerned ; and they will
be concluded ; but the date of completion, and therefore
the initiation of other projects of learning, have
inevitably been retarded by the events of the last seven
years.
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.
************************ *4 4 4 4 *4 44 4
7. Oxford Imprints
imprints used by the Press as printers and as
A 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 Universitatts, 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 4 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
tcit ejeptfieio fanctjj^w W nt
fimbolo apoftototum afc papam laute
euim Jftiprcfla (S>^onie <Jt fmita A^
no fcommi . AV * cccc Ijcvitj pvij-^i
fceccmbris *
From thg last page of the first Oxford
"^^TD
irif fctttpnaoja
trpjfirio ixnerabili
dd (up terflfl Iib^ te arnma.
pteffum p me ^^otettcu
Colonia m alma umufifatc (!S>xott
'die rnenpc <>tto!m$r
IDelsK
BELLOSITf DOBVNORVM
Excudebat fV.T. Impcnfis W.W.
1 o c xxviii.
OXONI/E
BARNES
tertio Idus lanuarij.
1585.
josgph^Barnes'Jirst imprint-
CIVIL IDAR, I(nP121NTS
Primed by His M A ) s s T 1 1 s Command Printed by his Majcfties Command.
AT OX F ORD, February A. 1642.
' * O x F o R P.
, Printer to the Univerftty.
MDCXLIT.
CounUrJeit
o jr a at * /,
TYJOGRA?HIA SHELDONIANA,
Anno Domini. M.DC.LXIX.
X N I A
E Theatro SKELDONIANO.
Anno Dom. M. DC. LXX.
Printed atthe THEATER in OXFORD,
and are to be fold by John tyilmot. 1671.
[ The Theatre Imprint went on till
X N I /,
E TYPOGRAPHEO CLARENDONI ANO,
OXFORD,
Printed for Thomas Wood at the Univerfity Printing-Houfe,
MDCCXXXVIII.
OXFORD,
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.
M. DCC. LVIII.
OXFORD,
At the CLARENDON PRJNTINQ-HOUSE. M.DCC.LIX.
IMPRINTS IN BIBLES
OXFORD. OXFORD,
At the THEATER 1^75. *"**** by the UNI^ERS / r r-
PRINTERS.
OXFORD.
Printed by JOHN BASKET T t Printer to the King's moil Excellent Majefty, for
GRSAT BRITAIN: and to the UNIVERSITT. M DCC XVII.
OXFORD,
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS,
By WILLIAM JACKSON and WILLIAM DAWSON, Printers to the UNIVERSITY
And fold at the Oxford Bible Warchoufc, in Paternofter Row, London, 1795.
CUM PRIVILEG10.
48 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.
0&^&^4fS*4f^
8. Catalogues and ^Advertisement
UNTIL recent years the Press has relied on its trade
catalogues and special lists, and on the skilled
assistance of the bookseller, to make known to the public
the great number and variety of its issues of the Bible,
the New Testament, Prayer Books, Hymn Books, and
kindred works, as well as of its general publications-
reprints, medical books, elementary books and so on ;
while the Clarendon Press Catalogue of learned and
educational books was a relatively modest affair of under
200 pages. The need of a single general catalogue for
the information of librarians and book-lovers had long
been felt, but pressure of business delayed its preparation
until the late Mr. Charles Cannan addressed himself
to the task, and with the devoted co-operation of his
daughters (who had replaced the members of the office
staff gone forth to war) and the advice of many scholars,
produced in 1916 the first edition of the General Catalogue^
comprising over 5-00 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.
2467
so CATALOGUES SP
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 New 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. c There are publishers and
publishers, but there is only one Oxford University
Press ', exclaims a writer in the Athenaeum j 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 51
necessarily requires revision as new publications accrue,
it is hoped that the Catalogue will not be treated as
c throw-away literature \ It is a well-printed and solidly
bound book, and the cost of supplying free copies to
book-buyers all over the world is not inconsiderable.
The Press produces two periodicals descriptive of its
publications: the official Bulletin distributed to 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 c unable to trace' an Oxford book,
published in 1920, reviewed at length by the leading-
literary papers, and advertised nearly every other week
in the Times Literary Supplement. Many books no doubt
(though not many Oxford books) have been and still are
out of print ; and in the absence of an up-to-date index
of current books, the difficulties of the bookseller have
been great. Now, however, when the 1920 edition of
the trade Reference Catalogue is available, with its single
alphabetical index (of 1,075- pages in double column), the
G 2
S 2 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 ; 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 i id 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 S3
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 popular series, gift books, &c.,
are always displayed. It is hoped before long to increase
the space available for this purpose in the Oxford
Depository, and to exhibit there all Clarendon Press
books, arranged by subjects as in the Catalogue, so that
members of the University and visitors may be able to
inspect at one time and place all the books offered in
any subject that may concern them. It is hoped to find
room for separate exhibits of school-books, maps, and
'juvenile ' books, so that the busy schoolmaster, with half
an hour to spare in Oxford, may make a rapid survey of
the contents of the Educational catalogue.
p. 7^(? Pr^w tfrf //j 1 ^Authors
THE Index to the General Catalogue contains the
names of some three thousand living authors and
editors. With almost all of these the Press deals direct,
and not through agents, and their friendly co-operation
is of immense service to the Delegates and their officers
both in planning books and in securing for them the
widest publicity.
Many of the books accepted by the Press are such as
in the ordinary way of business would not secure a
publisher except under subvention from the author or
some favourer of learning ; and of these the remunera-
tion (or at least the direct remuneration ; for the publica-
tion of solid books, like the knowledge of Greek in
former times, c 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 3 . It is believed that Oxford books, in an
exceptional degree, advertise themselves and each other
c 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
BIBLE
Containing the
Old Teftament
t
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.
IRK
THE ORDER OF
the Administration of
THE LORD'S SUTTER
OR
HOLT
Together with the Orders of
CONFIRMATION
THE SOLEMNIZATION OF MATRIMONY
AND THE CHURCHING OF WOMEN
According to the Use of
fHE CHURCH OF
Cum
Trivileglo
OXFORD
THE UNIFERSITT TRESS
MCMXI
2467
To THE KINGS MOST
EXCELLENT MAIESTY
10. Bibles and Grayer Book^
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 T RATER "BOOKS S9
that its bulk is not always realized; it is actually more
than four times as long as David Copperfield. A reference
Bible is, also, a highly complicated piece of printing.
Accuracy is secured by the employment of highly-skilled
compositors and readers a new Bible is c read y from
beginning to end many times and by the use of the
best material processes ; for all Bibles are printed from
copper plates on the most modern machines, and the
sheets are carefully scrutinized as they come from the
press. The Oxford Press offers a guinea for the discovery
of a misprint ; but very few guineas have been earned.
The bulk and weight of Bibles are kept down by the
use of very thin and opaque paper, specially made at the
Press Mill at Wolvercote. The use of such paper, and
especially of the Oxford India paper, the combination in
which of thinness with opacity has never been equalled,
may be said to have revolutionized the printing of Bibles,
by making possible the use of large clear type in a
book of moderate size and weight.
Of the Prayer Book as of the Bible a large number of
editions is offered to suit all fashions and purposes, and
this in spite of the serious risks arising from the liability
to change of the c 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
&rf^.ra
* J3>en ,
HOC E$T
NOVUM TESTAMENTUM
COPTIC UM
dcscripjit,
m LiaTinumJermtmem. converM
DAVID
Jtcctesice
Pres-butar.
j
ii. Clarendon Press Books
BY Clarendon Press Books are meant the learned.,
educational, and other < Standard J 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 2j. 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 4 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^.)
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 BOOI^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; of all
fields of knowledge, divine, human, and natural ; 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
6 4 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
Indian 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 : c 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 Mahratta 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 7 when in 1919 reasons of health compelled
him to retire, had in a few years proved himself a real
2467 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.
w
I
H
THE TORONTO BRANCH
2. The Tress in Canada
THE Oxford University Press Canadian Branch was
founded in 1904 at 2j Richmond Street West,
Toronto. The manager was Mr. S. B. Gundy, who still
presides at the same address; but the building was
destroyed by fire in 190$- and completely reconstructed.
Although Canada has still a relatively small popula-
tion, scattered over an immense area, the volume of
business done by the Branch is substantial, and it con-
tinues to grow. The sale of Oxford Bibles, Clarendon
Press books, Medical and Elementary books is supple-
mented by the sale of books published in Canada and
the United States, for which Mr. Gundy acts as agent.
Thus the Branch sells all the publications of the great
American house of Doubleday, Page and Company ; and
through this connexion it has recently become the sole
publisher in Canada of the works of Mr. Rudyard
Kipling.
Among the more notable Canadian enterprises of
the Press are the Church of England Hymn Book (the
Book of Common Praise), published in 1909, the large
stocks of which caused Mr. Gundy c to overflow into
a neighbouring barber shop', and the new edition of
the Presbyterian Book of Praise, produced in defiance
of submarines and other obstacles in 1917. The editor,
the Rev. Alexander Macmillan, carried the manuscript
across the Atlantic in small packets sewn into his clothes.
T 2
. 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 j 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
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.
?. The Tress 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.
7- The Tress in the United States
THE sale of Oxford books in the United States began
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 4 up town ' to the premises it now occupies at
3 y West 3 2nd Street. Mr. Armstrong died in 1 9 1 y , 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 71
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 c the
Oxford stamp 5 . 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
72 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 ; 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. The 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 Oxfora
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 WorlcPs 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 75
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 Humamores,
and has synchronized with the production of the Scripto-
rum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis.
This series, now popularly known as the Oxford Classical
^ is the only large series of critical texts of Greek
K 2
76 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 < 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 Mtiller 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
Scrip fa Minoa^ Sir Edward Ma unde 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 Larv of Contract^ Sir Courtenay Ilbert's Government of
ia^ Lord Bryce's Studies in History and Jurisprudence^
7 8 OXFORD SERIES
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 @f <zJ\danners
of his AGE
DC
Z OC
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 1916.
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 Books on the Empire
OXFORD is proud to consider itself as par excellence
the Imperial University. The administration of the
Empire owes much to Oxford men, as the University in its
turn owes much to her sons from overseas. Imperial
subjects are an important and growing branch of study at
Oxford j 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
2467 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
< John Company ' compiled at the India Office, and the
sumptuous publication of Sir Aurel Stein'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.)
3- 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 1916 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 c 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 <all
OXFORD STANDARD 85
these Fellows talked Latin ' j 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 Is this a good book ? ' have been heard to reply
< 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, 75-0 copies at ijv. or ^,000 at $s. 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.
EccePtierjruclus, ad qiivs liQi ip?e Mag isle r,
Et Pater inrvitant, <5c bent nottis Amor-
tilt a eft rapiof cnt^clis Be.tu.la inalos,
lA(unc ut tUviter verbcra carpe Viier.
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,
2467 M~
4- Illustrated Booki
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 regime ; 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) ; 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
Numor/im, 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 ^IJniversitatis 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, an ^ f 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, < 14^8 '-
1 65-0, a work much esteemed by bibliographers; Mr.
ShadwelPs 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 TUBLICATIONS
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 1877
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. Furnivall,
who saw, but did not shrink from, the immense pre-
paratory labours yet to be faced. Furnivall 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,
stifl growing, may be read in the Clarendon Press
Catalogue.
But even the enthusiasm of a Furnivall 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
FurnivalPs 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 Furnivall 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 ,000. 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 ; 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 th 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,
2467 N
98 ENGLISH DICTIONARY
partly in the Scriptorium attached to Dr. Murray's house,
partly (and in recent years wholly) in the Old Asbmolean
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: c 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 c 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 and other reasons no proper comparison can
be made with any other English dictionary; 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
f,ooo 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 j Vol. VII has 17^,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 Deutscbes Worterbuch started by the brothers Grimm
in 1838 began to be printed as long ago as 185-1, 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 waste,
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 191 f. 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 1916, 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,ooo
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-
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 mdnu-
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 fs. 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 : 4 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,
1 8 8 $--19 oo, 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
Continuing the work of the founder, Mrs. George
Smith undertook a Supplement covering the years 1901-
r 91 1, 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. 105
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 100,000, 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 5 adviser upon the Dictionary, preliminary work
is being steadily carried on. Subject-indexes have been
prepared j 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 of the same elaboration, if that Dictionary is
ever to be rebuilt from its foundations.
2467
8. The Oxford <JMedical 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
c 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 Practitioner's Encyclopaedia of Medicine and
Surgery.
MEDICAL TUBLICATIONS 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 sfnatomy, 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 19 1 6 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 i 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 PUBLICATIONS
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 4 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.
9. Oxford Books for Boys and Girls
'TM3E more recent activities of the Press include a
X notable enterprise, started by Mr. Henry Frowde
jointly with Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton, but now
carried on by Mr. Milford 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/^5 in which the printing privileges,
first granted on Nov. 12, 163*3 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
Book*) vol. ii, pp. 51630. ...... Frontispiece
Device used on the back of the Title of Sph<era Civitatis, Oxford 1588
Page 10
Four Founders of the Oxford University Press : Robert Dudley, Earl
of Leicester ; Archbishop Laud 5 Dr. John Fell ; Edward Hyde,
Earl of Clarendon ........ Facing 10
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, 1652.
Until the opening of the Sheldonian Theatre in 1669 the actual
printing was done in the private houses of the University Printers
Facing 1 1
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 1517 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
c The Prospect of Aleppo.' From W. Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo
to Jerusalem, Oxford 1703, engraved by M. Burghers . . . Page if
Title-page of Anthony Wood's Historia et ^ZntiyuJtates Uni'versitatis
Oxoniensisj published in 1674 . . . . . . . Page 17
The Three University Presses : The Sheldonian Theatre; The Clarendon
Building ; The Press of to-day ....... Page 1,9
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 ^ i
Specimens of Fell Types (see p. if) . . . . 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 26-7
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS in
Ancient Oak Frames in one of the Composing Room*; The Upper
Composing Room; The Monotype Casters; 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 ......... ,,31
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 . Pages 46-7
Title-page of the First Oxford Bible, 167] . . . . . Page 56
Title-page of the Altar Service used at the Coronation of King
George V, 1911 Page 57
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 ........ ,,68
The South African Branch . ..... ,,69
The New York Branch ........ 7 o
Show Rooms at the New York Branch . . . . . ,,71
Title-page of Shakespeare's England, published in 1916 . . . Page 79
Specimen of Work done by M. Burghers, Engraver to the University
about 1700 .......... Page S6
Specimen of Work done in the Studio of the Clarendon Press to-day 87
Illustration from Lily's Latin Grammar, Oxford 1692, . . . . 88
One of the drawings by Henry Ford for ^4 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, 13, 58, 63, and 73 are taken from
Clarendon's History of the 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 n is from Thomas Hearne's edition of Roper's Life of
Sir Thomas More published at Oxford in 1716.
Vad. Bourn vet.
vaa. >oum vet.
t.Ofneia Septentrionali*, ( ^. Caftrwm. I ^.Ofnci*. AuArali*.
live l.oOwrfReg-ali# ; vul^oReu'lj|
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