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The interface between authors and their readers is a fascinating subject in its own right, revealing a great deal about social attitudes, technological progress, aesthetic values, fashionable interests, political positions, economic constraints and individual personalities. This part of the Cambridge Library Collection reissues classic studies in the area of printing and publishing history that shed light on developments in typography and book design, printing and binding, the rise and fall of publishing houses and periodicals and the roles of authors and illustrators. It documents the ebb and flow of the book trade supplying a wide range of customers with products from almanacs to novels, bibles to erotica, and poetry to statistics.

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179 results in Cambridge Library Collection - History of Printing, Publishing and Libraries

Page 9 of 9

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Jesus College
  • Montague Rhodes James
  • Published online:
    07 September 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1895
  • M. R. James (1862–1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served both as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and many of his stories reflect his academic background. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still of value to scholars today. This volume contains James' catalogue of the manuscript holdings of Jesus College and will be welcomed by librarians and researchers alike.

Reminiscences of Literary London from 1779 to 1853
  • With Interesting Anecdotes of Publishers, Authors and Book Auctioneers of that Period
  • Thomas Rees
  • Edited by John Britton
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    25 February 2010
    First published in:
    1896
  • This volume brings together extensive recollections of authors, publishers, auctioneers and booksellers from 1779 to 1853, based on the author's personal acquaintance with the prominent writers, artists and book publishers of the period. The book is in three sections, each one concentrating on a given area of London and the literary scene centred upon it. They are Paternoster Row, Fleet Street and The Strand. Attention is paid to different forms of publication, such as the early magazines, in which books were published by instalments, and to key personalities. There is also detailed background to some of the most important publishing houses, such as Longman, and works which were considered pivotal to their success, such as 'Rees' Cyclopaedia' and the 'Annual Review'. Engagingly written from a personal perspective, this book will be of value to historians of literature and publishing, and others interested in London's literary past.

Wood-Engraving
  • A Manual of Instruction
  • William James Linton
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    04 March 2010
    First published in:
    1884
  • William James Linton (1812–1897) was a wood-engraver, poet, prose writer and political activist, who first worked in London but emigrated to the United States in 1866. He began his wood-engraving apprenticeship at the age of sixteen under the well-known London engraver G. W. Bonner. Linton's mature work, championing the use of 'white lining' and favouring the use of horizontal engraved lines and creating tone by differing line thickness, continued in the tradition of Thomas Bewick (1753–1828), the founding figure of wood-engraving. The publication of this book in 1884 marked the culmination of Linton's career, though he continued to research and write on the subject. The manual, originally published in only five hundred copies, is beautifully illustrated with Linton's own engravings and is a rich source for anyone interested in the technical details as well as the historical development of this specialist craft.

Bibliotheca Pepysiana
  • A Descriptive Catalogue of the Library of Samuel Pepys
  • Volume 1, 'Sea' Manuscripts
  • Joseph Robson Tanner
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1913
  • Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) was a student of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and bequeathed his personal library of 3000 volumes to the College on condition that the contents remained intact and unaltered; they remain there, in his original bookcases, to this day. In the early twentieth century, a project to produce a complete catalogue was begun, and four volumes were published between 1914 and 1940. Volume 1 lists 114 manuscripts relating to maritime and naval matters, a subject of particular interest to Pepys, who was employed by the admiralty. They fall into three main categories: official documents of his own time, other official and unofficial documents that he collected as material for his projected 'History of the Navy', and books and papers that appealed to him but are not directly relevant to naval history. This catalogue remains a valuable resource for researchers in naval history.

On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures
  • Charles Babbage
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    04 March 2010
    First published in:
    1832
  • In this famous book, first published in 1832, Charles Babbage (1791–1871), the mathematician, philosopher, engineer and inventor who originated the concept of a programmable computer, surveys manufacturing practices and discusses the political, moral and economic factors affecting them. The book met with hostility from the publishing industry on account of Babbage's analysis of the manufacture and sale of books. Babbage describes the many different printing processes of the time, analyses the costs of book production and explains the publication process, before discussing the 'too large' profit margins of booksellers. Babbage succeeded in his aim 'to avoid all technical terms, and to describe in concise language', making this an eminently readable historical account. His analysis and promotion of mechanisation and efficient 'division of labour' (still known as the 'Babbage principle') continue to resonate strongly for modern industrial engineering.

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Pembroke College, Cambridge
  • With a Hand List of the Printed Books to the Year 1500
  • Montague Rhodes James
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1905
  • M. R. James (1862–1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served both as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and many of his stories reflect his academic background. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still of value to scholars today. James' catalogue of the manuscript holdings of Pembroke College was first published in 1905. Now reissued, it will be welcomed by librarians and researchers alike.

Life and Times of the Right Honourable William Henry Smith, M.P
  • Volume 1
  • Herbert Eustace Maxwell
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    04 March 2010
    First published in:
    1893
  • This is a lively two-volume biography, first published in 1893, of the influential Victorian businessman and politician W. H. Smith (1825–1891), whose father and uncle established the well-known stationery and bookselling business. The author, Herbert Maxwell (1845-1932), was a Scottish essayist and Conservative Member of Parliament who greatly admired Smith's human qualities and had access to his personal papers. Volume 1 documents the foundation of the newspaper wholesaling business, Smith's education and his thwarted desire to become a priest. It describes how Smith helped his father expand their efficient and successful business to include a chain of railway station news- and bookstalls and a lending library, as well as becoming sole agents for The Times in 1854. Smith went into Parliament in 1868, and worked for several years at the Treasury. Volume 1 ends with his tour to Cyprus in 1878 as First Lord of the Admiralty.

Historical Account of the Substances Which Have Been Used to Describe Events, and to Convey Ideas, from the Earliest Date, to the Invention of Paper
  • Matthias Koops
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    25 February 2010
    First published in:
    1800
  • Matthias Koops was a pioneer of mechanical paper-making. He invented new processes for making paper from wood pulp rather than from rags, and for recycling paper itself to a condition in which it could be used for printing. The second edition (1801) of his book was printed partly on a type of straw paper and partly on recycled paper; the Appendix was 'printed on paper made from wood alone, the produce of this country'. Koops's aim was to overcome the problem of the scarcity of rags for paper-making, which he believed was a restraint on the development of commerce and of science, by producing paper from natural sources which were almost inexhaustible. However, the factory which he established went bankrupt after only one year, and it was to be nearly two centuries before printing books on recycled paper became a practical possibility for the industry.

Life and Times of the Right Honourable William Henry Smith, M.P
  • Volume 2
  • Herbert Eustace Maxwell
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    04 March 2010
    First published in:
    1893
  • This is a lively two-volume biography, first published in 1893, of the influential Victorian businessman and politician W. H. Smith (1825–1891), whose father and uncle established the well-known stationery and bookselling business. The author, Herbert Maxwell (1845-1932), was a Scottish essayist and Conservative Member of Parliament who greatly admired Smith's human qualities and had access to his personal papers. In this second volume, Maxwell narrates Smith's career from 1878 to 1891 as the First Lord of the Admiralty, revealing his political stamina during a time of economic hardship and conflicts in Afghanistan and among the Zulu. Extracts from his personal letters show the emotional burden of his responsibilities. Smith did not disguise his connection to the commercial middle class. Instead, he approached his political life with the same pragmatic wisdom he cultivated in business, and Maxwell emphasises how Smith strove to relieve the burdens of ordinary citizens.

Bibliotheca Pepysiana
  • A Descriptive Catalogue of the Library of Samuel Pepys
  • Volume 3, Mediaeval Manuscripts
  • Montague Rhodes James
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1913
  • Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) was a student of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and bequeathed his personal library of 3000 volumes to the College on condition that the contents remained intact and unaltered; they remain there, in his original bookcases, to this day. In the early twentieth century, a project to produce a complete catalogue was begun, and four volumes were published between 1914 and 1940. Volume 3 lists 51 volumes of medieval manuscripts, some of them consisting of several items bound together. The author, the outstanding palaeographer and prolific writer of catalogues M. R. James, remarks on the almost total absence of Latin liturgical and theological manuscripts, and calls attention to the historical, literary and scientific writings in English and French, several picture-books, an interesting 'scrapbook' and a unique copybook from 1400 included in Pepys' collection. This book continues to be a valuable resource for medievalists and Pepys scholars alike.

Bibliotheca Pepysiana
  • A Descriptive Catalogue of the Library of Samuel Pepys
  • Volume 4, Shorthand Books
  • William John Carlton
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1913
  • Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) was a student of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and bequeathed his personal library of 3000 volumes to the College on condition that the contents remained intact and unaltered; they remain there, in his original bookcases, to this day. In the early twentieth century, a project to produce a complete catalogue was begun, and four volumes were published between 1914 and 1940. Volume 4 describes the books about shorthand which Pepys – an enthusiastic practitioner himself - methodically collected, and had bound in five volumes. Over the centuries, various specialists had consulted this important collection but this catalogue brought it to the attention of bibliographers for the first time. It provides background information about the author of each work, places the content in its historical context and supplies bibliographic details together with notes about other surviving copies. It is a valuable resource for historians of stenography and its uses.

Memoirs of Libraries
  • Including a Handbook of Library Economy
  • Volume 2
  • Edward Edwards
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 May 2010
    First published in:
    1859
  • This monumental work, first published in 1859, covers the history of libraries from classical times to the mid-nineteenth century, in Britain, Europe and America. The author was influential in founding municipal libraries in nineteenth-century Britain and regarded access to good libraries as crucial to education and civilisation. Volume 1, divided by the author into five 'books', is reissued here in two parts. The first two books deal with classical and medieval libraries, examining English and European monastic libraries in depth. Book 3 describes the core collections of the British Museum and other major university, ecclesiastical and public libraries of Britain and Ireland. Book 4 discusses the principal libraries of America and Book 5 those of continental Europe, from France to Hungary and Russia. The final volume (in four 'books') sets out Edwards' views on all aspects of library management, from physical layout and classification to rules and regulations.

The Methods of Publishing
  • Samuel Squire Sprigge
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    04 March 2010
    First published in:
    1890
  • Samuel Squire Sprigge (1860–1937) was a qualified physician who worked for The Lancet from 1892 and was editor from 1909 until his death. He published several books including a history of the journal and its founder, and a volume of essays, Physic and Fiction. The Methods of Publishing first appeared in 1890 and is Sprigge's passionate contribution to the late-nineteenth-century discussion on how the question of literary property is best resolved. Sprigge argues that this matter is often treated in a cavalier manner that disadvantages authors, particularly in the relationship between publisher and author. In his view, book prices are too low, copyright protection for authors is insufficient, the royalty system is in chaos, and authors do not obtain a fair share of profits. He proposes that literary property questions be treated with the same legal formality and protection as is found in other business dealings.

Bibliophobia
  • Remarks on the Present Languid and Depressed State of Literature and the Book Trade. In a Letter Addressed to the Author of the Bibliomania
  • Thomas Frognall Dibdin
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    24 June 2010
    First published in:
    1832
  • In 1809, Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776–1847) published the first edition of Bibliomania, focussing on the contemporary craze for book collecting. Introduced in English at the end of the eighteenth century, the term 'bibliomania' - or 'book-madness' - gained popularity with the publication of Dibdin's book, in which bibliophiles conduct dialogues on the nature and history of book collecting, and the symptoms of and possible remedies for this 'fatal disease'. Published in 1832 under the pseudonym Mercurius Rusticus, Bibliophobia is a short pamphlet, which presents itself as a letter to the author of Bibliomania. The narrator, a book-lover himself, goes on a 'bibliopolistic pilgrimage', only to find out that 'bibliomania is no more', and that 'books are only the shadow of what they were'. From book-lovers to collectors, and from booksellers to libraries, the narrator carries out his entertaining yet melancholic investigation all the way to the Bodleian Library.

The Old Printer and the Modern Press
  • Charles Knight
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    04 March 2010
    First published in:
    1854
  • Charles Knight's The Old Printer was first published in 1854 and is partly a biography of William Caxton and partly an account of the development of the printing press and its role in English literature from the fifteenth century. William Caxton was not only the first printer in England, but also a prolific translator and importer of books. He established a printing press at Westminster and among the books printed there were Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and The Subtil Histories and Fables of Esop. Knight describes Elizabethan reading habits and traces the development of the types of books, papers and magazines that were most popular with the reading public in the mid-nineteenth century. The author is particularly interested in the availability of cheap popular literature as he regards this as an indication of the democratisation of society.

Travels in Town
  • By the Author of Random Recollections of the Lords and Commons, etc.
  • Volume 1
  • James Grant
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    04 March 2010
    First published in:
    1839
  • Born in 1802 in Elgin, James Grant first established himself as a reporter and then as a leading newspaper editor in Victorian London, heading the Morning Chronicle for two decades before moving on to the Christian Standard. His 1839 Travels in Town was designed as a companion piece to his earlier reflections on London, The Great Metropolis (1838) and Sketches in London (1838). This two-volume work reflects Grant's enthusiasm for 'this modern Babylon' and his lively interest in the intricacies of everyday life there. Volume 1 focuses on central London, observing major streets (including Downing Street) and the British Museum. Interweaving general descriptions with specific local information, Grant even provides his readers with details of the famous museum reading room and how to access its treasures.

Bibliotheca Pepysiana
  • A Descriptive Catalogue of the Library of Samuel Pepys
  • Volume 2, General Introduction and Early Printed Books to 1558
  • Edward Gordon Duff
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1913
  • Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) was a student of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and bequeathed his personal library of 3000 volumes to the College on condition that the contents remained intact and unaltered; they remain there, in his original bookcases, to this day. In the early twentieth century, a project to produce a complete catalogue was begun, and four volumes were published between 1914 and 1940. Volume 2 contains a general introduction to the library and its history, including extracts from Pepys's diary, will, and accounts. It then lists and describes the early printed books, with notes as to special features, other extant copies and publication history, among them several liturgical books in the Sarum rite and 1557 editions of Malory's La morte d'Arthur and the works of Thomas More. It also includes an index of printers. This catalogue remains a valuable resource for researchers in early publishing history and seventeenth-century studies.

Travels in Town
  • By the Author of Random Recollections of the Lords and Commons, etc.
  • Volume 2
  • James Grant
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    04 March 2010
    First published in:
    1839
  • Born in 1802 in Elgin, James Grant first established himself as a reporter and then as a leading newspaper editor in Victorian London, heading the Morning Chronicle for two decades before moving on to the Christian Standard. His 1839 Travels in Town was designed as a companion piece to his earlier reflections on London, The Great Metropolis (1838) and Sketches in London (1838). This two-volume work reflects Grant's enthusiasm for 'this modern Babylon' and his lively interest in the intricacies of everyday life there. Interweaving general descriptions with specific local information, Volume 2 describes the post office and bookselling in Paternoster Row before turning its attention to the city's various religious denominations. Grant, an ardent Calvinist, concludes with reflections on London's moral state.

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
  • Volume 2
  • Montague Rhodes James
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    26 November 2009
    First published in:
    1912
  • M. R. James (1862–1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served both as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and many of his stories reflect his academic background. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still of value to scholars today. This two-volume catalogue contains James' description of the manuscript holdings of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and will be welcomed by librarians and researchers alike.

Page 9 of 9