Bücher von Sydney Castle Roberts

S. C. Roberts, a senior officer of Cambridge University Press as Secretary to the Press Syndicate, wrote several works for Cambridge, including a history of the Press and this handy visitors' guide to the University. After its first publication in 1934, this book went through a number of editions and was thoroughly updated after the Second World War. Roberts introduces the reader to the University from within, covering its history, its finest buildings, the way the University was run and the daily life of the undergraduate. The informal style makes this a highly entertaining introduction to the Cambridge of the 1930s and 40s: the entrance examination, the midnight curfew for undergraduates, the then new University Library, and the systems of governance. For everyone connected with Cambridge, this little book provides fascinating insights into what has and has not changed in the ancient university city since the Second World War.

Published to mark the four hundredth anniversary of the first book to be printed in Cambridge by John Siberch in 1521, this book traces the development of the Press over four centuries. S.C. Roberts, who became Secretary to the Press Syndicate in 1922, blends archival research with an anecdotal style to produce this informative account. Appendices list the university printers up to 1921, including most famously Thomas Thomas, John Legate, Thomas Buck and John Baskerville, and the books published in each year between 1521 and 1750 by authors such as Erasmus, George Herbert, John Donne, John Milton, Isaac Newton and Thomas Browne. Aimed at the general reader, this lively account of the Press' major achievements is illustrated with a number of portraits and historical documents and remains a useful introduction to the history of the oldest publishing house in the world.