A History of the Cambridge University Press, 1521-1921

by S. C. Roberts

The reading of the proof has been almost entirely directed to the detection of errors in the manuscript. That this has been possible is due to the remarkable record of the Cambridge University Press which in setting up over five hundred quarto pages of numerical tables has allowed less than a dozen printer's errors to pass its proof-readers and has, in addition, frequently queried our own mistakes. Few sheets have required a second proof and in the actual use of the Tables, as finally printed, for the calculation of the ephemeris for two years, no error of any kind has been detected.

On the retirement of Mr George Seeley in 1856, Messrs Hamilton, Adams & Co., of Paternoster Row, were appointed as agents for the Syndics' books[139]. This arrangement, however, does not seem to have been satisfactory, as the name of a new agent—George Cox—appears in the following year; a further change was made in 1862 when the firm of Rivingtons became agents for Cambridge books; finally, when this agreement came to an end, ten years later, the Syndics reported to the Senate that "acting on the advice of Mr Clay" they had decided "not to appoint other Agents, but to conduct their London business in an office of their own, under the superintendence of a paid Manager" and that they had agreed "to take a Lease of convenient premises in Paternoster Row."

The beginning of the Syndics' career as London publishers—in the strict sense of the term—must therefore be assigned to the year 1872. At that time the number of books published by the Syndics—apart from bibles and prayer-books—was very small. Among them, however, may be noted the first volume of Mullinger's The University of Cambridge, published in 1873, the first instalment of a monumental work which remained uncompleted at the author's death in 1917.

In 1874 an important step was taken, the Syndics deciding to publish a series of editions of Greek, Latin, French, and German authors designed for use in schools and especially for candidates for the Local Examinations. This was the beginning of the Pitt Press Series, which now includes over 300 volumes, and such editions as Sidgwick's Virgil and Mr Verity's Shakespeare—to name but two out of many—have become familiar to many generations of schoolboys.

The Syndics' catalogue for 1875 (a pamphlet of 16 tiny pages) reflects the beginnings of schoolbook publishing: it opens with some nine volumes in the Pitt Press Series; then follow Scrivener's Paragraph Bible, Scholefield's Greek Testament and several theological works including Isaac Barrow's Works in nine volumes; there are five editions of Greek and Latin authors, among them being Paley and Sandys's Private Orations of Demosthenes and Heitland's Cicero pro Murena; mathematics and physics claim nine books, including Kelvin and Tait's Elements of Natural Philosophy; history is represented by Mullinger's first volume, already referred to, and Mayor's edition of Baker's History of St John's College; of law books there are three, including Whewell's edition of Grotius de Iure Belli ac Pacis; and the list ends with a few catalogues and university examination papers.

In 1877 the publication of another important series was begun—The Cambridge Bible for Schools. The general editor was Dr J. J. S. Perowne, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, and the first volume to appear was Maclear's St Mark.

Originally designed for school use, the series soon attained a wider public. It was begun before the publication of the Revised Version and at the very time when the controversy was raging in Scotland which resulted in the suspension of Robertson Smith from his professorship at Aberdeen; when the series was finally completed by Sir George Adam Smith's Deuteronomy in 1918, many of the older volumes had already been replaced or revised. On the death of Bishop Perowne in 1904 The Times referred to the series as one which had "done more to spread accurate Biblical knowledge among English-speaking people than any book except the Revised Version."

The agreements between the university presses and the two companies of revisers for the publication of the Revised Version had been completed, "after much careful consideration as well as protracted negotiation," in 1873.

Three years earlier the New Testament company had held the first of its 407 meetings in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey. The company included the most distinguished theologians of the time—Hort, Westcott, Lightfoot, Ellicott, Scrivener, W. F. Moulton—and at first an average of only seventeen verses was revised in the daily session. Later, however, progress became a little more rapid and the revision was completed on 11 November, 1880. The Revised New Testament was published jointly by the university presses in 1881 and the Old Testament three years later. The secretary of the Old Testament company was W. Aldis Wright, for more than 30 years a Syndic of the Cambridge Press.

By 1890 the catalogue of the Syndics' publications had grown considerably, not only by additions to the Pitt Press and other Series, but by the publication of larger works on literary and scientific subjects, such as Robertson Smith's Kinship and Marriage in early Arabia, Willis and Clark's Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, Maitland's edition of Bracton's Note Book, and Jebb's Sophocles.