Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessment to form Cambridge University Press and Assessment under Queen Elizabeth II's approval in August 2021. However, the Press retains an independent existence within the larger entity.
With a global sales presence, publishing hubs, and offices in more than 40 countries, it has published over 50,000 titles by authors from over 100 countries. Its publications include more than 420 academic journals, monographs, reference works, school and university textbooks, and English language teaching and learning publications. It also publishes Bibles, runs a bookshop in Cambridge, sells through Amazon, and has a conference venues business in Cambridge at the Pitt Building and the Sir Geoffrey Cass Sports and Social Centre. It also serves as the King's Printer.
Cambridge University Press, as part of the University of Cambridge, is a non-profit organization. Cambridge University Press joined The Association of American Publishers trade organization in the Hachette v. Internet Archive lawsuit which resulted in the removal of access to over 500,000 books from global readers.
History
Cambridge University Press is the oldest university press in the world. It originated from letters patent granted to the University of Cambridge by Henry VIII in 1534. Cambridge was one of the two privileged presses (the other being Oxford University Press). Authors published by Cambridge have included John Milton, William Harvey, Isaac Newton, Bertrand Russell, and Stephen Hawking.
University printing began in Cambridge when the first practising University Printer, Thomas Thomas, set up a printing house in 1584. The first publication was a book, Two Treatises of the Lord His Holie Supper. In 1591, the first Cambridge Bible was printed by John Legate and in 1629, Cambridge folio edition of the King James Bible was printed by Thomas and John Buck.
In July 1697, the Duke of Somerset made a loan of £200 to the university "towards the printing house and press" and James Halman, Registrary of the university, lent £100 for the same purpose.The Cambridge University Press 1696—1712 (Cambridge University Press, 1966), p. 78
A new home for the press, The Pitt Building, on Trumpington Street in the centre of Cambridge, was completed in 1833, and was designed by Edward Blore. It became a listed building in 1950.
In the early 1800s, the press pioneers the development of stereotype printing, allowing successive printings from one setting. The press began using steam-powered machine presses by the 1850s. It was in this period that the press turned down what later became the Oxford English Dictionary a proposal for which was brought to Cambridge by James Murray before he turned to Oxford.
The press journals publishing programme began in 1893 with the Journal of Physiology and then the Journal of Hygiene and Biometrika. By 1910 the press had become a well-established journal publisher with a successful list which includes its first humanities title, Modern Language Review. 1956 saw the first issue of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.
The press has published >170 Nobel Prize winners, the first in 1895.
In 1913, the Monotype system of hot-metal mechanised typesetting was introduced at the press.
In 1949, the press opened its first international branch in New York.
The press moved to its current site in Cambridge in 1963. The mid-century modern building, University Printing House, was constructed in 1961–1963. The building was designed by Beard, Bennett, Wilkins and Partners.
In 1975, the press launched its English language teaching publishing business.
In 1981, the press moved to a new site on Shaftsbury Road. The Edinburgh Building was purpose-built with an adjoining warehouse to accommodate the press's expansion. It was built in 1979–80 by International Design and Construction. The site was demolished in 2017 to make way for the construction of Cambridge Assessment's Triangle Building.
In 1989, the press acquired the long-established Bible and prayer-book publisher Eyre & Spottiswoode, which gave the press the ancient and unique title of The Queen's Printer.
In 1992, the press opened a bookshop at 1 Trinity Street, Cambridge, which was the oldest-known bookshop site in Britain, as books have been sold there since 1581. In 2008 the shop expanded into 27 Market Hill where its specialist Education and English Language Teaching shop opened the following year. The press bookshop sells Press books as well as Cambridge souvenirs such as mugs, diaries, bags, postcards, maps.
In 1993, the Cass Centre was opened to provide sports and social facilities for employees and their families.
In 1999, Cambridge Dictionaries Online was launched.
In 2012, the press sold its printing operation to MPG Books Group and now uses third parties around the world to provide its print publications.
In 2019, the press released a new concept in scholarly publishing through Cambridge Elements where authors whose works are either too short to be printed as a book or too long to qualify as a journal article could have these published within 12 weeks.
In 2021, Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessment. The new organisation was called Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
In 2022, Amira Bennison was elected chair of the Cambridge University Press academic committee, replacing Kenneth Armstrong.
+ Named printers at Cambridge University Press Name From To Thomas Thomas 1583 1588 John Legate1588before 1593 John Porterbefore 15931606 Cantrell Legge1606before 1608 Thomas Brookebefore 16081622 Thomas Buck1625? John Buck?1630 Francis Buck16301632 Roger Daniel16321650 John Legate16501655 John Field16551669 Matthew Whinn1669 John Hayes16691680 John Peck16801682 Hugh Martin16821683 James Jackson16831686 H Jenkes16931697 Jonathan Pindar16971705 Cornelius Crownfield17051730 Mary Fenner, Thomas & John James17341740 Joseph Bentham17401758 John Baskerville17581766 John Archdeacon17661793 John Burges17931802 John Deighton18021804 Andrew Wilson18041809 John Smith18091836 John William Parker18361854 George Seeley1854 Charles John Clay18541882 John Clay18821886 Charles Felix Clay18861916 James Bennet Peace19161923 Walter Lewis19231945 Brooke Crutchley19451974 Euan Phillips19741976 Harris Myers19761982 Geoffrey Cass19821983 Philip Allin19831991 Geoffrey Cass19911992 Anthony K Wilson19921999 Jeremy Mynott19992002 Stephen Bourne20022012 Peter Phillips2011
Print and typographic heritage
People John Siberch, in 1521 the first printer in Cambridge John Baskerville (1707–1775), the official printer; his Cambridge edition of the King James Bible (1763) was considered his masterpiece Bruce Rogers (1870–1957), appointed 'printing expert' at the press for two years in 1917 Stanley Morison (1889–1967), typographical advisor both to the press and to the Monotype Corporation from 1925 to 1954 and, from 1929, also to The Times newspaper John Dreyfus (1918–2002), joined the press in 1939 and became Assistant Printer in 1949 David Kindersley (1915–1995), designed a special typeface, Meliorissimo, for the press's buildings, stationery, signs and vans John Peters (1917–1989), designer of Angelus (Monotype, 1954, a 4 point typeface for Bible composition at Cambridge University Press), Castellar (an open caps face, Monotype, 1954? or 1957), Fleet Titling (1967, Monotype Series 632), and Traveller (1964, a Monotype font done for the British Railways Gordon Johnson (1943–), chair of the Syndicate governing Cambridge University Press from 1981 to 2010. Sandars Reader in Bibliography in 2009–2010 and lectured on "From printer to publisher: Cambridge University Press transformed, 1950 to 2010."Johnson, Gordon. 1999. Printing and Publishing for the University: Three Hundred Years of the Press Syndicate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Publications 1584: the press's first publication was a book, Two Treatises of the Lord His Holie Supper. 1591: the first Cambridge Bible was printed by John Legate 1629: Cambridge folio edition of the King James Bible was printed by Thomas and John Buck. 1633: The Temple by George Herbert (1593–1633) includes "Easter Wings". The poem's words and lines are arranged on the page to create a visual image of its subject. 1713: the second edition of Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica was published by the press. 1763: John Baskerville's folio Bible, considered a masterpiece, uses his innovations with type, paper, ink, and the printing process. 1895: the first title by a Nobel Laureate was published: J. J. Thomson's Elements of the Mathematical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism.
Current publications
Open access Cambridge University Press has stated its support for a sustainable transition to open access. It offers a range of open access publishing options under the heading of Cambridge Open, allowing authors to comply with the Gold Open Access and Green Open Access requirements of major research funders. It published Gold Open Access journals and books and works with publishing partners such as learned societies to develop Open Access for different communities. It supports Green Open Access (also called Green archiving) across its journals and monographs, allowing authors to deposit content in institutional and subject-specific repositories. It also supports sharing on commercial sharing sites through its Cambridge Core Share service.
In recent years it has entered into several Read & Publish Open Access agreements with university libraries and consortia in several countries, including a landmark agreement with the University of California. In its 2019 Annual Report, Cambridge University Press stated that it saw such agreements "as an important stepping stone in the transition to Open Access".
In 2019, the press joined with the University of Cambridge's research and teaching departments to give a unified response to Plan S, which calls for all publications resulting from publicly funded research to be published in compliant open access journals or platforms from 2020. The response emphasized Cambridge's commitment to an open access goal which works effectively for all academic disciplines, was financially sustainable for institutions and high-quality peer review, and which leads to an orderly transition.
The Press is a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association and the International Association of STM Publishers.
In 2023, more than 50 per cent of Cambridge University Press research articles were in open access mode.
Nobel prize winners published by Cambridge University Press
J. J. Thomson (Physics – 1906) Ernest Rutherford (Chemistry – 1908) Niels Bohr (Physics – 1922) Werner Heisenberg (Physics – 1932) Charles Scott Sherrington (Medicine – 1933) Erwin Schrödinger (Physics – 1935) James Chadwick (Physics – 1935) Patrick Blackett (Physics – 1948) John Cockcroft (Physics – 1951) Ernest Hemingway (Literature – 1954) Alexander R. Todd (Chemistry – 1957) Max Perutz (Chemistry – 1962) Eugene Wigner (Physics – 1963) Max Born (Physics – 1964) Nikolay Basov (Physics – 1964) Richard Feynman (Physics – 1965) Derek Barton (Chemistry – 1969) Samuel Beckett (Literature – 1969) Simon Kuznets (Economics – 1971) Dennis Gabor (Physics – 1971) Kenneth Arrow (Economics – 1972) Burton Richter (Physics – 1976) James Meade (Economics – 1977) Nevill Francis Mott (Physics – 1977) Herbert A. Simon (Economics – 1978) Steven Weinberg (Physics – 1979) Abdus Salam (Physics – 1979) Subramanyan Chandrasekhar (Physics – 1983) Gérard Debreu (Economics – 1983) Richard Stone (Economics – 1984) Franco Modigliani (Economics – 1985) James M. Buchanan (Economics – 1986) Wole Soyinka (Literature – 1986) Robert Solow (Economics – 1987)