The Early Oxford Press / A Bibliography of Printing and Publishing at Oxford, '1468'-1640; With Notes, Appendixes and Illustrations

The old measures make the type of all these very slightly smaller than the above measurements.

C. Notanda.

It is curious to observe the small points which break the smooth course of ordinary printing in these earlier times, some of them marking progress, some a perturbation in the office, some stupidity. The following are random notes of some bibliographical interest.

1. The change of use in the case of u and v (Vniuersity being the old spelling, and University the new) may be remarked in progress in 1589, no. 5, and is practically completed by 1610. But a capital U is not found at all in the period dealt with, its place being in a few cases supplied by a large lower-case u.

2. For “at Oxford” the common Latin is Oxoniæ, but Oxonii occurs sporadically. Bellositi Dobunorum occurs in 1628: and Rhydychen (in Welsh books) in 1595, 1600.

3. In 1588 (no. 8) we first find an Oxford édition de luxe.

4. The state of the office is shown by 1595, no. 4 (small stock of type); 1601, no. 2 (Hebrew words sometimes transliterated, sometimes in Hebrew type: yet in 1603, no. 2, there is a complaint of the want of Hebrew type!); 1625, no. 16 (one sheet in different type); 1628, no. 16 (carelessness).

5. Red ink is found in 1479
80, 1628, 1631, 1633 and thereafter; and gold-printing in 1633.

6. Curiosities of workmanship will be found in 1629, no. 14; 1631, nos. 10, 17; 1633, nos. 26, 33; 1634, no. 9; 1635, no. 3; 1636, no. 15 (signatures); 1638, nos. 3, 17 (do.); 1640, no. 24: and eccentricity on the author’s part in 1631, no. 29; 1633, no. 9 (phonetic spelling); 1635, no. 10. In 1613 no. 29 (Rainolds) on the first two pages of each section the headline is “prophecy”, but on every other page it is “prophecie”. 1634 no. 17 (Statuta) is a true folio, in every sense in which the word is used.

7. The number of books or editions issued at Oxford is roughly as follows:—15th cent., 15: early 16th cent., 7: 1585–1600, 125: 1601–1620, 230: 1621–1640, 370: total, about 750. In the 17th cent. about 2700 were issued: in the 18th, about 2100: in the first three quarters of the 19th, about 6500. The number from “1468” to 1900 may be estimated as likely to be about 16000.

8. Of the Oxford books issued from “1468” to 1640, the British Museum contains less than 70 per cent., and the Bodleian about 80 per cent. The following calculation is not far from the truth:—