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Timeline

Cambridge University Press: The future of publishing since 1584

1534

Cambridge University Press is granted a royal charter by King Henry VIII to print ‘all manner of books’.

1584

Cambridge publishes its first book: Two Treatises of the Lord His Holie Supper.

1629

The first Cambridge edition of the King James Bible.

1763

John Baskerville’s folio Bible: setting a new standard in the quality of printing and design.

1805

The Cambridge Stereotype Bible: the invention of stereotyping allows successive printings to be made from one setting, improving the accuracy and stability of the text.

1893

The Press publishes the first title in its Pitt Press series of Shakespeare editions for schools and its first journal, the Journal of Physiology.

1902

Publication of the first 12 volumes of the Cambridge Modern History commences.

1913

The Monotype system of hot-metal mechanised typesetting is introduced at the Press, leading to significant improvements in text quality, and in particular in the layout and spacing of complex formulae.

1975

Cambridge launches its English Language Teaching publishing business.

1992

The Press opens its bookshop at 1 Trinity Street, Cambridge: the oldest bookshop site in the country, where books have been sold continuously since at least 1581.

1999

The first Cambridge print-on-demand book is printed digitally by Lightning Source and the Press also publishes its first eBook. The new technologies make an important contribution to the Press’s goal of advancing learning, knowledge and research worldwide, enabling books of important scholarly value to remain in print, in perpetuity.

2004

The Press makes its books more easily discoverable as a founding member of Google Book Search.

2007

Cambridge University Press, the world’s oldest publisher, congratulates Professor R.M.W. Dixon, author of Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development on his book becoming the 10,000th Cambridge print-on-demand title.