Whereas it is a common complaint that when schollars have taken great paines in writing usefull bookes, they cannot get them printed but at their own great charges. It is probable that there will be cause of the like complaint here in Cambridge, if there be but one printing house, which likewise will be taken away, for it is likely if one Printer will not, another will[48].
The result of this petition is not recorded; but it certainly did not lead to the dissolution of the partnership, for in 1639 we find an elaborate agreement[49] between Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel on the one side and six London stationers (Robert Mead, John Parker, Miles Flesher[50], Robert Young, Edward Brewster, John Legate[51]) relating to the sale of bibles, service books, singing psalms, grammars and other school books. The large stock of these books printed at Cambridge was bought by the London syndicate, who guaranteed to leave sufficient copies in Cambridge to supply the needs of the university, whilst Buck and Daniel undertook not to print further copies of the books for the space of ten years without the consent of the Stationers.
From the preamble of this agreement it also appears that John Buck had assigned his rights as printer to Roger Daniel.
However difficult, not to say tyrannical, Thomas Buck's dealings with his various partners, and however questionable some of his dealings with the Stationers may have been, his name stands high in the annals of Cambridge typography. The first Cambridge edition of the Authorised Version was printed by him in 1629, a fine book with an elaborately engraved title-page. In the next year two quarto editions were produced, and these were followed by several other editions during the next ten years. Buck and Daniel were so well satisfied with their folio of 1638 ("perhaps the finest bible ever printed at Cambridge") that they posted a notice on the door of Great St Mary's Church challenging scholars to find a mistake in it, and offering a free bible to anyone who should do so.
"The Bible," says a document of about 1655, "was never better printed than by Mr Buck and Mr Daniel."[52]
It was about this time, too, that the encouragement of the study of Arabic in the university began. In 1626 Archbishop Usher had endeavoured to obtain from Leyden matrices of Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, and Samaritan letters for the use of the University Press, but was forestalled by the Elzevirs[53].
TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST CAMBRIDGE EDITION OF THE AUTHORISED VERSION