possibilities of Anglo-American co-operation. The _Concise Oxford
Dictionary_ of current English, adapted from the great Oxford Dictionary,
has been and is very widely used throughout the British Empire and by
students of English in foreign countries. But its spelling, and certain
other features, were found to disqualify the book for general use in the
United States; and a special American edition is now in preparation, the
adapter of which is Mr. G. Van Santvoord, of Oriel College, Oxford, and
Yale University.
The Press is publisher, on both sides of the Atlantic, to the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, many of whose books have been printed
at Oxford. Special mention may be made of the first volumes, printed
at the Press and recently published, of the British Section of the
great _Economic and Social History of the World War_ undertaken by the
Endowment. These volumes are by Professors Keith and Bowley and Mr. J. A.
Salter.
IV
OXFORD BOOKS
§ 1. _Oxford Series_
At one time Oxford books were produced almost always at the instance
of an author; and many Oxford books are still so produced. A scholar
having devoted, it may be, many years of his life to a subject which
he has made his own, applies to the University Press for publication
of his researches; and such a claim is often admitted as irresistible.
In modern times, however, the need for organization by the publisher
has become increasingly apparent. Many books which if published in
isolation would reach only a small public are found capable of a wider
usefulness when issued as part of a larger plan; and thus the initiative
in publishing passes more and more into the hands of the professional
commanding the advice of a body of experts. School-books, reprints of
the Classics, text-books of the applied sciences, and books of the nature
of Dictionaries and Encyclopaedias are now almost always conducted in
this way by co-operative enterprise.
The number of such homogeneous series promoted by the Press during the
last twenty years is large, even if all school-books are excluded. The
_Oxford English Dictionary_ (which is of earlier origin) bulks so large
in the public eye as somewhat to obscure all humbler enterprises; but
it does not stand alone. In English literature the Press has built up
in a quarter of a century a whole library of uniform series, all of
respectable dimensions. The _Oxford English Texts_ are library editions
of famous authors edited after exhaustive examination of the materials,
in print and in manuscript, and handsomely printed from type; the _Tudor
and Stuart Library_ consists of first editions and exact reprints of
famous books of that period, printed in the types of the period on
paper calculated to last for many centuries more; these books are now
finding their way into the second-hand catalogues and the collections
of connoisseurs; the _Oxford Library of Prose and Poetry_ is a series
of little books for fanciers, offering especially the classics of the
Romantic Revival in a form approximating to that of the originals; the
_Oxford Poets_ claim to be the last word for accuracy of text, condensed
yet fine printing, and the lowest price compatible with these qualities;
the _Oxford Standard Authors_ offer the same texts as the Oxford Poets,
together with many prose classics, in a cheaper form; the average volume
containing nearly 600 pages of close yet legible print. Finally, the
_World’s Classics_ furnish a collection of over two hundred of the most
famous English books in a very handy form, still maintained in print
as far as possible in spite of the costs of production, which make it
increasingly difficult to keep any but the most popular books on sale in
a cheap series.
None of these series has been created by the simple expedient of taking
an existing edition and sending it to the printer—a plan too commonly
followed, as is well known to every one who has ever investigated the
text of a well-known author, and has found that each edition contains
almost all the errors of its predecessors and adds fresh errors of its
own. The Oxford texts are the result of the laborious co-operation
of editor, publisher, and printer, involving the choice of the most
authoritative original—very often the collation of a number of printed
originals and sometimes of manuscripts as well—expert attention to
the problems both editorial and typographical of which the successful
solution produces a well-designed book, and finally scrupulous diligence
in the elimination of error. The substantial accuracy of Oxford texts is
widely recognized, and is known to be due to the united vigilance of the
editors, the publishers (themselves scholars and sometimes editors), and
the printers. It is less well known how complex and difficult are the
problems which the modern editor has to solve. The scientific editing
of English texts is indeed a relatively recent growth, and depends upon
the application of principles which in the field of Greek and Latin
textual criticism have been elaborated in the course of centuries. It
is thus no accident that the work done in English editing in the last
five-and-twenty years has been largely in the hands of scholars trained
in the Oxford school of _Literae Humaniores_, and has synchronized with
the production of the _Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis_.
This series, now popularly known as the _Oxford Classical Texts_, is the
only large series of critical texts of Greek and Latin authors produced
in recent times outside Germany and able to hold its own in competition
with its great German rivals. The texts, which now fill nearly eighty
volumes and include the most important writers of the ‘classical’
periods of Greek and Roman literature, have been based upon much fresh
examination of the manuscript originals. Some of the editors, indeed,
have devoted years to this kind of investigation; the labours of Mr.
Allen on the manuscripts of Homer and of Professor Clark and Sir William
Peterson on those of Cicero have secured for their authors a permanent
place in the long history of classical scholarship.
The aim of the series is to give the best text which the examination
of the manuscripts in their relation to each other affords, and to
provide in a brief _apparatus criticus_ sufficient information to show
the evidence on which the editor has based his decision. Conjectural
emendations are mentioned in the notes when they are considered
plausible, but are not admitted to the text except where they reach
a high degree of probability. This principle, which is mainly due to
the authority of the late Ingram Bywater, has commended itself in the
course of years even to those who were at first disposed to think it too
austere, and has greatly enhanced the permanent value of the series,
which before the war was finding its way into Germany itself. A famous
German publisher went so far indeed as to address to Oxford (on the eve
of the war) a letter of remonstrance on the price of the series, which
was described as too low for its value.
The _Oxford Library of Translations_ consists mainly of prose versions
of Greek and Latin authors. These have not been made to order or in
accordance with any single principle of translation, but have been
produced at the instance of scholars unable to deny themselves the
satisfaction of translating a favourite author. This, which is perhaps
the best guarantee of excellence, accounts for the miscellaneous
constitution of the series, which has been enlarged by degrees as a happy
conjunction of author and translator chanced to present itself, and from
the same cause admits some interesting authors seldom or never included
in series of translations made upon a less elastic plan.
Another series of translations is the great collection of the _Sacred
Books of the East_, which was begun many years ago by the late Max Müller
and reached its fiftieth and concluding volume in 1910. The value of
these translations to Orientalists is shown by the steady sale, which
after forty years is still increasing, and by the high prices asked for
the few volumes which are now unfortunately out of print.
History, and the subjects akin thereto, afford less scope for homogeneous
series than does the editing of ancient and modern classical literature;
and it has been the policy of the Press rather to secure monographs of
unique authority in special fields than to compile works of encyclopaedic
information. A few examples will serve to illustrate the range and
importance of the Oxford books produced in this way which have become
classics in their subject: in the History of Antiquity, Sir Arthur
Evans’s _Scripta Minoa_, Sir Edward Maunde Thompson’s _Palaeography_,
Vincent Smith’s _Early History of India_; in the Fine Arts, Barclay
Head’s _Historia Numorum_, Vincent Smith’s _Fine Art in India_, Dalton’s
_Byzantine Art_; in Constitutional History and Law, Anson’s _Law and
Custom of the Constitution_ and _Law of Contract_, Sir Courtenay
Ilbert’s _Government of India_, Lord Bryce’s _Studies in History and
Jurisprudence_, Hall’s _International Law_, Prof. Keith’s _Responsible
Government_, Sir Erskine Holland’s _Jurisprudence_; in British History,
Stubbs’s _Constitutional History of England_, Freeman’s _Norman
Conquest_, Sir Paul Vinogradoff’s _Villainage in England_ and _English
Society in the Eleventh Century_, Sir Charles Oman’s _Peninsular War_; in
European History, Finlay’s _Greece_, Hodgkin’s _Italy and Her Invaders_;
in Geography, Prof. Beazley’s _Dawn of Modern Geography_ and Mr. R. L.
Poole’s great _Historical Atlas_.
Books of this kind best represent the type at which Oxford has aimed
in the historical and human sciences, and it is to the promotion of
such works that the resources of the Press have in this field been most
advantageously applied. When, however, the progress of a subject and
the enthusiasm of an editor have combined to suggest another way, the
opportunity has been taken of organizing research upon a common plan.
Notable results of such combined endeavour are the _Oxford Survey of the
British Empire_ and the _Historical Geography of the Dominions_ promoted
by the late Prof. Herbertson and by Sir Charles Lucas of the Colonial
Office respectively. The former work, containing in six volumes a general
and a particular survey of the geographical, economic, and administrative
aspects of the Empire and its constituent parts, was completed within a
short time and published within a few weeks of the outbreak of the war.
In an important sense therefore it cannot become out of date, since it
affords a conspectus of conditions as they existed at the culmination
of the former age, to which it will always be necessary to refer as a
standard of comparison. The other series, which is in seven volumes
(comprising twice as many separate parts), has had a longer and more
chequered history, the march of events since the early years of the
century, when publication began, having made necessary frequent revision
and reconstitution. The work is still in progress, and India has recently
been added to its scope.
[Illustration]
A more recent collection arose out of the demand during the war for a
compendious survey of the history of the belligerent powers. To satisfy
the demand was one of the pieces of war work undertaken by the Press,
and the evident usefulness of the volumes having survived the war has
led to the establishment of a series on a permanent and wider plan,
including Histories of the Nations and treatises of similar scope on
leading questions of International politics. The series now covers
France, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, the Balkans, Serbia, Russia, Prussia,
China, and Japan, with books on the Eastern Question, Diplomacy,
Nineteenth-Century Treaties, and other topics. Many of the volumes have
been frequently reprinted, and additions are in preparation.
Not the least interesting of Oxford books written by a number of
contributors on a uniform plan is _Shakespeare’s England, an Account
of the Life and Manners of his Age_, published in two volumes in the
centenary year 1916. The book contains an Ode by the Poet Laureate, a
long essay on the Age of Elizabeth by Sir Walter Raleigh, and some forty
special articles by the first authorities.
Another co-operative enterprise is the _Oxford History of Music_, which
in six volumes surveys the whole subject from the beginning to the time
of Wagner; it is not a collection of biographies, but a history of music
as such—of origins, tendencies, and evolution. The authors include the
late H. E. Wooldridge, the late Sir Hubert Parry, and Sir Henry Hadow,
whose enlightened enthusiasm has done so much for the study of music in
England.
§ 2. _Oxford Books on the Empire_
Oxford is proud to consider itself as _par excellence_ the Imperial
University. The administration of the Empire owes much to Oxford men, as
the University in its turn owes much to her sons from overseas. Imperial
subjects are an important and growing branch of study at Oxford; and
the Press, true to its tradition of building upon the foundations of
experience, has in time put together an imposing collection as well of
the classics of colonization and administration as of new and original
treatises by scholars versed in its theory and practice. These books
being very diverse have not been confined within the limits of a series
uniform in size or appearance; but they have a real unity, and deserve
it is believed to be acquired as a whole by every library with any
pretensions to an imperial character. Among the most important volumes
may be enumerated Wakefield’s _View of the Art of Colonization_, first
published in 1849, Lord Durham’s _Report on British North America_,
Cornewall Lewis’s _Government of Dependencies_; and (among modern
treatises) Prof. Keith’s _Responsible Government_ (in its present form
published as recently as 1912, yet already an established classic), and
the same author’s _Imperial Unity_, Prof Egerton’s _Federations and
Unions_, Sir Courtenay Ilbert’s _Government of India_.
The Press is so strong in books on _India_ that it has seemed well to
issue a special catalogue bringing together a mass of books which in the
General Catalogue are listed under a variety of subject-headings. These
include a large and important section published by the Press under the
patronage of the Secretary of State—notably the _Imperial Gazetteer of
India_ in twenty-six volumes, the noble series of documents on the early
history of ‘John Company’ compiled at the India Office, and the sumptuous
publication of Sir Aurel Stein’s discoveries in Turkestan; but they
include also a whole library of books produced by the Press at its sole
charges and dealing with the history of India from the Empire of Asoka to
the formulation of Dyarchy, with the geography, politics, and economics
of modern India, and with the religion and literature, the fine art, and
the music of Hindostan. The production by the Press in India itself of
vernacular and other educational books has recently made great progress.
(See also p. 65 for some notice of the series of _Classics of Indian
History_.)
§ 3. _The Oxford Standard_
The standard of scholarship, accuracy, and literary excellence which
the Delegates maintain in the books published under their authority
is believed to be as high as that attempted by any other publisher
in the world. Its maintenance imposes upon the Delegates much labour
and expense; but the effort is repaid in the reputation which Oxford
books enjoy in the public estimation. The supervision exercised by the
Delegates, both personally and through their advisers, is not limited to
the initial judgement passed upon a book offered to them for publication;
it extends through the whole process of revision in manuscript and
in proof. When a book is favourably considered, an expert’s detailed
report is very often laid before the author, who is asked to consider
the suggestions made and to confer with the Delegates’ advisers; and
this process of scrutiny is frequently far-reaching, the criticism being
invited at one stage or another of a number of specialists in various
fields. In this way many, perhaps most, of the books produced by the
Press have received substantial improvement; and not a few have undergone
something like transformation. To these benefits abundant testimony is
borne in the prefaces of authors; more, perhaps, reposes in the archives
in Walton Street.
The technical services rendered to scholarship by the Clarendon Press
proof-readers are likewise commemorated in many a preface. The late
Mr. J. C. Pembrey, who in 1847 read Wilson’s _Sanskrit Grammar_, and
in 1916 read Prof. Macdonell’s _Vedic Grammar_ for press, was well
known to three generations of Oriental scholars; the late Mr. W. F. R.
Shilleto did much to secure accuracy and uniformity in the series of
_Oxford Classical Texts_; and Mr. George Ostler has left the marks of
his vigilance upon many editions of the English classics. Long training
in a severe school develops unusual powers; and authors are sometimes
startled by instances of what seems beyond natural acumen. An author who
had misquoted _Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis_ in the usual
form, was naturally astonished when the reader inquired in the margin
‘Should it not be _et nos_?’, which is of course unmetrical. The reader
was right, nevertheless; but the source of his information remained
obscure. In fields less recondite than this the authority of the readers
is generally recognized; many editors have confessed that in the matter
of Greek accents they should not think of disputing it.
The attention thus paid to the claims of scholarship and accuracy brings
doubtless unmixed benefits to learning and education. To the Press as
a business concern the blessing is less unequivocal. The Delegates’
resources are not without limits; and they are sometimes embarrassed by
the ambitions of learned authors from all parts of the world, to whom
nothing but the imprint of the Clarendon Press seems an adequate reward.
They are obliged to pick and choose, and sometimes to decline a proposal
which would attract them if it had fewer rivals. Another imputation is
less deserved. A distinguished American who had been invited to dine in
an Oxford College confessed afterwards that as he entered the room his
knees knocked at the thought that ‘all these Fellows talked Latin’;
and the public is sometimes frightened away from an Oxford book by the
apprehension that it will be found full of Greek quotations. There is in
fact no necessary connexion between accuracy and pedantry; and even Dons
are often men of the world, well acquainted with the limitations of the
average intelligence. No one need be afraid that an Oxford book on any
ordinary subject will be any more abstruse than another book, though its
facts will perhaps be better authenticated and its arguments more closely
reasoned. The booksellers know this; and in reply to a customer’s inquiry
‘Is this a good book?’ have been heard to reply ‘Why it’s an Oxford book’.
Another fallacy which dies hard is that Oxford books are dear. This
is perhaps no more than a hasty inference from the fact that Oxford
produces an exceptionally large proportion of books which from their
nature cannot be cheap. No one would expect to buy Liddell and Scott’s
Greek Lexicon, or the _Index Kewensis_, for a few shillings; but these
books and many like them are really inexpensive, if regard is paid to
the number of words they contain. The Oxford Dictionary itself is sold
at an almost nominal price. Many of the books, however, which appeal to
a narrow public are properly priced higher than if they could be sold in
large numbers; for the price of a book depends mainly upon two things—the
number of words it contains and the number of people who will buy it.
The art of publishing lies in nothing so much as in estimating whether a
book is more likely to sell say, 750 copies at 15_s._ or 5,000 at 5_s._
The policy of the Press has always been elastic in this respect; and very
many of its books are among the cheapest in their kind.
[Illustration: Specimen of work done by M. Burghers, Engraver to the
University about 1700]
[Illustration: Specimen of work done in the studio of the Clarendon Press
to-day]
[Illustration: From Lily’s Latin Grammar, Oxford 1692]
[Illustration: One of the drawings by Henry Ford from _A School History
of England_ by C. R. L. Fletcher and Rudyard Kipling, 1911]
§ 4. _Illustrated Books_
The publication by the Press of beautifully illustrated books is mainly
a development of comparatively recent years, and it has been furthered
by the progress of collotype printing at Oxford. The catalogue now
includes a large number of sumptuous monographs on artistic subjects.
In its facsimiles of manuscripts and rare printed books, published on
its own account or for the British Museum, the Press has done much to
make accessible to scholars the treasures of the great collections.
Well-known examples are the magnificent collotype reproduction of the
New Testament part of the _Codex Sinaiticus_ (from negatives made at St.
Petersburg under the old régime; negatives were fortunately made of the
Old Testament part as well, and the reproduction of the whole of this
most famous of all manuscripts will before long be completed); and the
complete collotype reproduction of the Shakespearian corpus, consisting
of the Folio of 1623, which went out of print on publication in 1912, and
the _Poems and Pericles_ from the first editions, still on sale.
The Press has also published very numerous reproductions of works of
art of all kinds, partly by way of illustrated catalogues of special
collections or _genres_ (such as the three folio volumes of Oxford
Drawings by the old masters, the numerous coin catalogues, and the cheap
collection of British Historical Portraits in half-tone); partly in
the form of profusely illustrated monographs, which moreover are all
scientific works by experts and not mere collections of pretty pictures
with illustrative letterpress.
These works are of great importance to students and collectors, and a
select list is appended: Head’s _Historia Numorum_, Gardner’s _Ancient
Coinage_, Beazley’s and other books on Greek Vases, Hill’s _Renaissance
Medals_, Dalton’s _Byzantine Art_, Maunde Thompson’s _Palaeography_,
Murray’s _History of Chess_, ffoulkes’s _Armour and Weapons_, Rivoira’s
_Moslem Architecture_, Vincent Smith’s _Fine Art in India_, Sir Aurel
Stein’s _Khotan_ and _Serindia_ and other special works on Eastern Art,
the important series of monographs on English Church Art written or
edited by the late Francis Bond, with his comprehensive _Introduction to
English Church Architecture_ in two volumes, and many more too numerous
to cite, particularly the great wealth of British Museum catalogues.
A very welcome recent accession to the catalogue is supplied by the
sumptuous monographs on Italian Masters produced by the Harvard and
Princeton University Presses.
The use of illustration is, however, by no means confined to facsimiles
and works on the arts. The modern productions of the Press have made an
increasing use of illustration both as an embellishment and as a medium
of information. School-books in particular are now lavishly illustrated
with portraits, maps, diagrams, and other reproductions, often either of
modern photographs or of old cuts and engravings carefully chosen, so
that the actual men and things of former times may be faithfully mirrored.
The Press prints for the British Museum and other London collections,
as well as for the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, very large numbers of
postcards in collotype, by means of which a knowledge of our national art
treasures is being widely spread.
§ 5. _Official Publications_