The Early Oxford Press

The story of Oxford University Press spans five centuries of printing and publishing. This first volume traces the beginnings of the University Press, its relationship with the University, and developments in printing and the book trade, as well as the growing influence of the Press on the city of Oxford.

Oxford University Press is one of the oldest and best-known publishing houses in the world. This history, originally published to mark 500 years of printing in Oxford, traces the transformation of the Press from a lucrative Bible house into a great national and international publishing business. Great names in the early history of the Press, like Laud, Fell, and Blackstone, laid sound foundations, but as late as the 1890s the University was censured for sanctioning the publication of the secular and profane literature of Marlowe and Shakespeare.

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