This is the first of three volumes concerning the history of the oldest press in the world, a history that extends from the sixteenth century to the present day. Although there was, briefly, a press at Cambridge in the early 1520s, the origins of the modern University Press spring from a charter granted to the University by Henry VIII in 1534, to provide for printers who would be able to work outside London and serve the University. In the event no book was printed until fifty years later, but from 1583 to the present the line of University Printers stretches in unbroken succession. Covering the period from the Reformation to the end of the seventeenth century, and drawing on a wealth of unpublished or unfamiliar materials, this volume explores the University's attitude to its Printers, the books they chose to print, and the circumstances in which they worked. For the first time, the early history of the Press is set in its context - of authors, University authorities, and readers, and its activities are fully related to the wider issues of the book trade in Britain and overseas. This book will be of interest to all involved in the history of politics, literature, the Church, education and social life in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain.
