Seaton, U.K. Old School Press, 2015, 2018, 2019. Hardcover. Number 41 of 50 deluxe copies, with another 200 copies in the standard edition, initialed by Martyn Ould. This monumental work is the first definitive narrative about work at one of the greatest of English presses. The author/publisher writes on his website: In November 2013 Oxford University Press published a major four-volume history of itself. In 2008 I had been asked to write a chapter for volume I, specifically about the operation of the printing side during the hugely important period from 1668 to 1780 which began with the formation of the free-standing Press under John Fell and his partners. As I worked on my chapter it became apparent that, although historian Harry Carter and bibliographer Falconer Madan had delved into many aspects of the topic, their coverage was fragmented, scattered here and there through their writings. There was evidently no single continuous narrative that told the story of the day-to-day business of printing. It is that gap that this book now fills. This title, the most ambitious in its research and extent from The Old School Press, is a three-volume work. Volume I covers three key resources of the Press (in particular the Learned Press) and their development: the premises they occupied and how they were used, the management organisation that ran the Press, and the paper it used and its sources. Volume II covers the type it used and its sources. Each of these resources is dealt with chronologically in order to show the changes that occurred and why, as well as providing the foundations for the third volume. Volume III covers the processes of the Learned Press, detailing how a book progressed from its author's copy, via compositor, corrector, press-crew, and rolling-press man to the Warehouse ready for sale.

Throughout my researches I have aimed at basing the entire narrative in contemporary documents, rather than relying on later commentators and writers. I have tried to let the players of the time speak for themselves through their letters, notes, and accounts, and also to provide the necessary background to what was happening at the time both in Oxford and the wider world as it impinged on work at the Press. Each of the three volumes contains reproductions of manuscripts from Oxford University Press archives, Oxford University archives, and the Bodleian Library, all published for the first time. There were 200 copies in the standard edition. This is one of fifty copies of the deluxe edition It is bound in quarter black leather with covers in black, white and gray marbled paper done by Jenna Lewis. The volume is accompanied in a brown cloth covered slipcase with additional material in a separate volume: with volume I there is Correspondence on Paper, transcriptions of a collection of hitherto unpublished correspondence from the London paper dealers to the Press in the 1670s; with volume II a portfolio of leaves from books printed across the period illustrating the changes in types and typography; and with volume III an extended essay - Learning about Printing - on the business planning done by Fell's partner Thomas Yate at the time that they set up their press in 1671-2, including many clues to productivity and pay at the time. The text was set in Monotype 12/14 point Van Dijick and printed on Mohawk Superfine paper at Gloucester Typesetting. The binding was executed by Ludlow Bookbinders. Volume I in fine condition save for three small brown marks on the fore-edge of Volume I. All volumes measure 8.5 x 11 inches. Volume I: 153 pages including the index. Volume II in fine condition. 153 pages including the colophon. Volume III in fine condition. 194 pages including the colophon. PRI/071425. Fine. More

Seaton U.K. Old School Press, 2024. Hardcover. Number 48 of 79 copies numbered 1 - 79, each containing five of the twelve plates that are pulls from the original Morison Copperplates,"taken with the permission of The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford where the original Herbal resides. There were a further seven hors de commerce copies lettered A to G, each containing all twelve plates. This is a beautiful work that pays admiring homage to the Herbal and the original engravings from Robert Morison's "Plantarum Historiae Universalis Oxoniensis" of 1680 and 1690. The book opens with an introduction to Morison's Herbal, which its writer, Scott Mandelbrote, calls one of the most significant publishing projects undertaken in late seventeenth-century England. There follows a section that describes each plate, including a discussion of that particular plant along with details about the plate itself. The sections describe fritillaries, cabbages, sunflowers, gingers, mixed monocots, carrots, mints, monk's hoods, orchids, chillies [sic], cyclamens, and mosses and lichens.

The text volume has dark blue cloth covers, with a white spine and silver titling to front cover. Following the book are the five plates pulled from the originals chosen for this copy, held in a sleeve; along with them is a booklet containing photographic reproductions of pulls of all twelve plates, reduced to 67% and digitally printed. Both the book and the plates are held in slip case covered in the same blue cloth as the book, with a white title label to spine. The text was hand-set in Monotype Van Dijck type and printed on antique Rives BFK paper. The binding was executed by Ludlow Bookbinders. The Old School Press has inserted a note to the readers informing them that the paper on which the book's text is printed was rescued from other defunct printing house of St. Hugh's Charterhouse monastery in Sussex. The printing house closed its doors in the 1960s and the paper then remained in less than ideal conditions. As a result some sheets show some staining. The pages in this copy show no staining and the book and plates are in fine condition. Folio measuring 12.5 x 18.5 inches. Unpaginated. PRI/071425. Fine. More