A Chart of Oxford Printing, "146S " - 1900. By Falconer Madan,
M.A. (Oxford University Press.)—This is one of the publications of the Bibliographical- Society. Mr. Madan, whose position at the Bodleian gives him special qualifications for the work, supplies a conspectus of what has been done in the way of printing in Oxford since what we roughly call the beginning of the art. " 1468" is, indeed, a doubtful date. It is scarcely doubtful. Mr. Madan thinks it to be an error or a forgery. In 1468 there was no printing outside Germany, Italy, and Switzer- land; the earliest known date for Oxford printing is 1479, when an edition of Aristotle's "Ethics " was published. Of this eight copies still exist. Thirteen other volumes were published between that date and 1487, when the Oxford Tress ceased to exist, as, by a significant coincidence, did that of the Abbey of St. Albans. In 1517 it was at work agaiii,-and produced seven books up to 1520. Then came a long iaterval of inaction. In " 0 comis es comis, merito Comes ergo vocaris; dux tibi sit Christus, nobilitasque comes," sang the Lincoln bard of the day. The Press has never ceased . its activity since that time; but there have been considerable . variations, the magnitude of which Mr. Madan represents by.an . orographical Chart. The Royal residence in Oxford, 1642-45, pro- _ duced a striking elevation. Proclamations, pamphlets, &C., to the ... number of a hundred and forty-seven appeared in 1642 ; but in .- 1t149 there were but seven. In 1660 there was another rise: . - Eighty-two years afterwards the lowest point was reached. In. 1806 a decided rise is to be seen, reaching a total of nearly three hundred at the end of the century. Diversely coloured lines, indicate theological, learned, and miscellaneous works. Mr. Madan illustrates his chart with a number of interesting notes. .
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