Some Account of the Oxford University Press, 1468-1921 · Oxford University Press
OXFORD BOOKS
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 _Oxford English Texts_ are library editions of famous authors edited after exhaustive examination of the materials, in print and in manuscript, and handsomely printed from type; the _Tudor and Stuart Library_ consists of first editions and exact reprints of famous books of that period, printed in the types of the period on paper calculated to last for many centuries more; these books are now finding their way into the second-hand catalogues and the collections of connoisseurs; the _Oxford Library of Prose and Poetry_ is a series of little books for fanciers, offering especially the classics of the Romantic Revival in a form approximating to that of the originals; the _Oxford Poets_ claim to be the last word for accuracy of text, condensed yet fine printing, and the lowest price compatible with these qualities; the _Oxford Standard Authors_ offer the same texts as the Oxford Poets, together with many prose classics, in a cheaper form; the average volume containing nearly 600 pages of close yet legible print. Finally, the _World’s 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 of production, which make it increasingly difficult to keep any but the most popular books on sale in a cheap series.
None of these series has been created by the simple expedient of taking an existing edition and sending it to the printer—a plan too commonly followed, as is well known to every one who has ever investigated the text of a well-known author, and has found that each edition contains almost all the errors of its predecessors and adds fresh errors of its own. The Oxford texts are the result of the laborious co-operation of editor, publisher, and printer, involving the choice of the most authoritative original—very often the collation of a number of printed originals and sometimes of manuscripts as well—expert attention to the problems both editorial and typographical of which the successful solution produces a well-designed book, and finally scrupulous diligence in the elimination of error. The substantial accuracy of Oxford texts is widely recognized, and is known to be due to the united vigilance of the editors, the publishers (themselves scholars and sometimes editors), and the printers. It is less well known how complex and difficult are the problems which the modern editor has to solve. The scientific editing of English texts is indeed a relatively recent growth, and depends upon the application of principles which in the field of Greek and Latin textual criticism have been elaborated in the course of centuries. It is thus no accident that the work done in English editing in the last five-and-twenty years has been largely in the hands of scholars trained in the Oxford school of _Literae Humaniores_, and has synchronized with the production of the _Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis_.
This series, now popularly known as the _Oxford Classical Texts_, is the only large series of critical texts of Greek 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 Professor 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 principle of translation, but have been produced at the instance of scholars unable to deny themselves the satisfaction 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 included 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 Müller 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 encyclopaedic information. A few examples will serve to illustrate the range and importance of the Oxford books produced in this way which have become classics in their subject: in the History of Antiquity, Sir Arthur Evans’s _Scripta Minoa_, Sir Edward Maunde Thompson’s _Palaeography_, Vincent Smith’s _Early History of India_; in the Fine Arts, Barclay Head’s _Historia Numorum_, Vincent Smith’s _Fine Art in India_, Dalton’s _Byzantine Art_; in Constitutional History and Law, Anson’s _Law and Custom of the Constitution_ and _Law of Contract_, Sir Courtenay Ilbert’s _Government of India_, Lord Bryce’s _Studies in History and Jurisprudence_, Hall’s _International Law_, Prof. Keith’s _Responsible Government_, Sir Erskine Holland’s _Jurisprudence_; in British History, Stubbs’s _Constitutional History of England_, Freeman’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 Geography, 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 organizing 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 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 his 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 enthusiasm has done so much for the study of music in England.
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 personally 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 improvement; 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 1847 read Wilson’s _Sanskrit Grammar_, and in 1916 read Prof. Macdonell’s _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 training in a severe school develops unusual powers; and authors are sometimes startled by instances of what seems beyond natural acumen. An author who had misquoted _Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis_ in the usual form, was naturally astonished when the reader inquired in the margin ‘Should it not be _et nos_?’, which is of course unmetrical. The reader was right, nevertheless; 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 learning 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 embarrassed 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 distinguished 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 these Fellows talked Latin’; and the public is sometimes frightened away from an Oxford book by the apprehension 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 ‘Is this a good book?’ have been heard to reply ‘Why it’s an Oxford book’.
The publication by the Press of beautifully illustrated books is mainly a development of comparatively recent 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 reproduction of the New Testament part of the _Codex Sinaiticus_ (from negatives made at St. Petersburg under the old régime; 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 reproduction 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 reproductions of works of art of all kinds, partly by way of illustrated 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 collection of British Historical Portraits in half-tone); 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.
These works are of great importance to students and collectors, and a select list is appended: Head’s _Historia Numorum_, Gardner’s _Ancient Coinage_, Beazley’s and other books on Greek Vases, Hill’s _Renaissance Medals_, Dalton’s _Byzantine Art_, Maunde Thompson’s _Palaeography_, Murray’s _History of Chess_, ffoulkes’s _Armour and Weapons_, Rivoira’s _Moslem Architecture_, Vincent Smith’s _Fine Art in India_, Sir Aurel Stein’s _Khotan_ and _Serindia_ and other special works on Eastern Art, the important series of monographs 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 confined 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 reproductions, 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.
The University twice during the war printed its _Roll of Service_, and in 1920 published the third and definitive edition: it contains the names, fourteen thousand five hundred and sixty-one in number, of those members of the University who served in the Military and Naval forces of the Crown. The names of those who gave their lives, two thousand four hundred and seventy-four in number, are distinguished by heavy type. _The Oxford University Almanack_ has been printed annually since 1674, and of the illustrations since 1716 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_, ‘1468’-1650, a work much esteemed by bibliographers; Mr. Shadwell’s _Enactments in Parliament_ (concerning Oxford, Cambridge, Winchester, Eton, and Westminster); Mrs. Poole’s three volumes (one is out of print) of illustrated catalogues of Oxford Portraits (all these published for, or in co-operation with, the Oxford Historical Society); and, in a lighter vein, Mr. Lamborn’s popular _Story of Architecture in Oxford Stone_ and handy guides, written by experts, to the Bodleian, other Oxford Libraries, the Ashmolean Museum, the University Museum (of Natural 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 1857 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 supplying 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 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 preparatory 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, still 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 Furnivall’s own, and was by acclamation designated as editor, entered into negotiations with the Delegates of the Press, and an agreement was signed.
It is fortunate that the magnitude of human undertakings 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 accumulation 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. Dr. Murray himself agreed with the Delegates for a work of between 6,000 and 7,000 pages. The total will exceed 15,000. 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 investigations of a range never before attempted. For the wealth of the materials made available our gratitude is due to readers not only in the United Kingdom but in all parts of the world, and notably in the United States of America, where the Dictionary is regarded with affectionate admiration as the common achievement of the English-speaking people.
Valuable, however, as the work of these voluntary helpers has been, an even larger debt of gratitude is due to the faithful labours of the editorial staff of assistants, some of whom can trace back their term of service to the earliest years of the undertaking. To their acumen, vigilance, and zeal have been and are due in large measure the completeness of the evidence and the correctness of detail in the presentation of words and their meanings. Dr. Murray with his staff moved to Oxford in 1885, and there the work has been continuously carried on, partly in the _Scriptorium_ attached to Dr. Murray’s house, partly (and in recent years wholly) in the _Old Ashmolean Building_, next door to the old Sheldonian Press and within a stone’s throw of the Bodleian. Here, as a section of the alphabet comes to be treated, the material is sifted, extracts from it are put in order, fresh investigations, often laborious, are undertaken to settle etymologies and doubtful points in the history of a word; copy is prepared for the printer, and references are checked. The complete preparation of the material involves 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.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.