WONDERS OF THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 216, 5 September 1908, Page 3

WONDERS OF THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

USING 100,000 ANIMAL SIGNS TO COVER BIBLE>>. Probably the most ancient Bible printing works in the world is the Oxford University Press, which dates back to the fifteenth century. At the present time this Press is 'turning out Bibles at the rate of over 1,000,1100 a year. bi 150 dill'erent languages, ranging from Eskimo to Indian. .Moreover, Bibles jf all sizes are produced, from the lar-je folio Bible for the reading desk down to the smallest which weighs only Jo/. There are two departments to this famous Press—the Learned Press and the. Bible Press. The Learned Press employs about ,'WO persons, chiefly compositors and proof-readers, and sets up ill type the numerous classical, English, and Oriental works for which the Press is lamous. The average production of the Learned Press is now about one book for every working day—that is to say. about 320 a year. At the Bible Press -100 persons, with sixty modern printing machines, produce on an average 3,000 copies of the Bible, not to mention Prayer-books, every day. The wholesale binding work is done 'in London, and the skins of 100,000 animals arc used every year for the covers of Oxford Bibles alone.

One of the feats of the Clarendon Press was performed in connection with the Caxton Exhibition in 1577, which was opened by Mr. Gladstone. The list of Bibles was headed by the first Bible printed (1450-3?), and 'ended with one printed and bound, within the twelve hours which preceded Mr. (iladstonc's speech. The printing at Oxford actually began at two in the morning from movable type. Exactly one hundred copies, each containing 1,052 pages, were printed and numbered consecutively; the sheets were artificially dried aiid sent up to London by the nine o'clock morning express.

They wove at once bound at the Oxford University Press Bindery in London, in Turkey niorooeo, witli gold lettering and the amis of the University on the side, and :i jiareel containing ten eopies was taken to the exhibition by two o'clock ill the afternoon. ,\'.i wonder Mr. Gladstone said this feat might be called ''the climax- and Consummation of printing."