Cambridge University Press 1584–1984

In 1984 the Press celebrated 400 years of continuous printing and publishing. This history, now published as a paperback, provides a readable introduction to that unique period, with a new foreword by Gordon Johnson which comments on the continuing achievement of the Press today. The story is of the development of the printing and publishing arm of the University of Cambridge, from the medieval system of resident stationers to the modern international printing and publishing house of today. The narrative is set within the development of the University; in the history of the book trade as a whole; and in the intellectual and political history of England.

• Available for the first time in paperback with a new foreword by Gordon Johnson • Covers the whole of the Press’s history to 1984, and with it an important slice of English intellectual and cultural history • Complements in a single volume the three-volume history of the Press by David McKitterick (volume 1 1992, volume 2 1998, volume 3 forthcoming)

Preface; Foreword Gordon Johnson; 1. Introduction; 2. Precursors: the stationers and Siberch; 3. The Letters Patent of 1534: the Stationers’ Company; 4. The foundation of the Press: Thomas Thomas; 5. Early printers: John Legate, Cantrell Legge, Buck and Daniel; 6. The Commonwealth and Restoration; 7. Bentley’s ‘public Press’; 8. The eighteenth century; 9. The nineteenth century I; 10. The nineteenth century II; 11. R. T. Wright and the Secretaryship; 12. Waller and Roberts as Secretaries: Lewis as Printer; 13. From 1945 to 1972; 14. Recovery: 1972–74; 15. Charitable status recognised; 16. From 1974 to 1984; 17. Conclusion; Appendices.

‘This is a most handsome, well-written and well-researched account … a distinguished and on the whole soberer one than the curiously disjointed history of its ancient rival.’ Church Times

‘Cambridge University Press has a history of which it is justly proud, and in Mr Black has found a historian who has done full justice to this remarkable story.’ The Library

‘Black has written a landmark study of a unique British institution. The scholarly publishing community is richer for this study of its origins.’ Educational Studies

‘This an altogether admirable book, hugely enjoyable and informative … Black’s prose is lucid and frequently witty, while the work is far less self-serving than most volumes of a similar kind.’ Nature