Cambridge Stationers, Printers, Bookbinders. By the Rev. H. P. Stokes.
(Cambridge Bowes and Bowes. ls. 6d. net.)— Dr. Stokes's interesting lecture on the book trade at Cambridge was suggested by the late Mr. Robert Bowes's gift to the town of a remarkable collection of books printed at Cambridge from 1586 onwards. The book trade was, of course, active long before John Siberch set up the first Cambridge press in 1521, and the fifteenth-century " stationers," who had had " standing shops " or stalls, had a privileged position in the University, somewhere between the scholars and the tradesmen. By Royal letters- patent, in 1534, the University was empowered to elect from time to time three stationers and printers or booksellers ; it was under this grant that the University Press was set up by Thomas Thomas, Fellow of King's, in Elizabeth's day, whose most popular production was his own Latin dictionary. The press was reformed and placed wider the care of Syndics in 1698, at the instance of Bentley. The famous Baskerville was University printer from 1758 to 1788, and produced his celebrated folio Bible at Cambridge in 1763.
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