A History of Cambridge University Press: Volume 2, Scholarship and Commerce, 1698-1872

This second volume of the history of Cambridge University Press deals with a period of fundamental changes in printing, publishing, and bookselling. The purpose of this book is not only to chronicle the history of the Press, but also to set it in this context of change: to examine how the forces of commerce collided with the hopes or demands of scholarship and education, and how, in the end, one was made to exploit the other. The volume opens with the new arrangements made by the University for printing in Cambridge in the 1690s, and closes on the eve of the opening of new premises in London. In the first years, the leading figure was Richard Bentley, whose controversial part in the activities of the Press was critical to its fortunes. As always, the success of the Press depended on London and the London book trade. This book explores the changing nature of this relationship, and the extent to which the University Press also became an international publisher.