WHERE BIBLES ARE MADE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 259, 25 July 1908, Page 12

WHERE BIBLES ARE MADE.

From " A Brief Account of tho University Press at Oxford,"' by. Mr. Falconer Madan, M.A. •(Glarendon-Press)) • we learn (says tho ," Gazette") that the sale of ;Prayer-books"tfliiCta"atbs .more. than that of 'jfcho .Bible; recent- years tho former have gone out from Oxford at rates varying from ;750;000":to',l;2g0,'000, per annum,,, while the ! sale of Bibles has been as -follows:— Forthe:year . Copies. ...;1875; . . ... 500,000 ' : 1835 . ... ... ... 700,000 1895 ... 1,000,000 . .. /1905 1',120,000 ; The large Folio Biblo for the' reading-desk : sells' atj the rate of'between thirty .and forty ' por annum/aud the' Folio Prayer-boolt in .'like numbers, but the editions of tho Biblo and Prayer-book most in dornand are disposed of :'at; tho'. rato 0f.*;250,000 and 350,000 per annum respectively. . The Clarendon Press has two departments in Walton Street, Oxford—tho Learned Press and the Bible Prosß. : Tho Learned Press about 300 persons, chiefly compositors, and proof-readers, and sets up in typo the numerous Classical, English, and Oriental works for which tHo press is famous. Moro than 150:_languagesj each with its appropriate type", cairbo offered to tho prospective author or-editoi:, including Eskimo. The average "tlie'Learned Press is now about ono hook for every working day, that is to say'affouV32o"a'*y6'ar. At the Bible-Press. 400/'pers<)tfs,;)vith; sixty modern printing machines, produco on an averago 3000 copies of the Bible, •> not- 'to- - mention Prayer-books, every duy v The wholesale binding-work is done Jin* Londoru.ll'lie skins of 100,000 ani- ' mßls""dfb* tfStid 'year for tho covers of Oxford Bibles alono. • t ■■ One of tho feats' of*' the Clarendon Press was performed in connection with tho Caxton Exhibition in 1877, which was opened by Mr.' Gladstone. Tho, list of Biblos was headed by tho first Bible printod (1450-3?), and onded with one-printed and bound within the twislvo hours which preceded Mi>. Gladstone's speech. The printing at Oxford aotually .■ began at two in tho morning from movable typo! Exactly one'liundrcd copies (each con!'taming 1052 pages) 'wero printed and num--I'bored consecutively,;, the sheets wero arti'ficially dried and sent up to London by tho .nine-o'clock"'morning"express. They wero at 'once bound , at,tho...Oxford University Press "'Bindery.in London, in Turkey morocco, with 'gold lettering and tho arms of tho University on oho side,- and a parcel containing -ten .copies was .taken to tho exhibition by two o'clock.in tho afternoon. Mr. Gladstono !:saitl',this feat might be called " the climax ■and'cdnsummation of printing."