Printing and Publishing for the University of Cambridge

This lecture was delivered to mark the 300th anniversary of the establishment of the Press Syndicate, the body to which the administration of Cambridge University Press is delegated. It gives a short account of the 1690s, which saw new advances in printing, publishing and academic activity which in turn led to the revitalisation of the Press and to the first attempt at a publishing programme driven explicitly by the University. This part of the lecture concentrates on Richard Bentley as the key figure behind the Press in the late seventeenth century. In the subsequent discussion of the Press's printing and publishing today, the reader will discern the continuity and consistency of the Press Syndicate's activities over three centuries.