Timeline

1534

We are granted Letters Patent, similar to a royal charter, by King Henry VIII to print 'all manner of books'.

1584

We publish our first book: Two Treatises of the Lord His Holie Supper.

1591

The first Cambridge Bible is printed by John Legate.

1629

The first Cambridge edition of the King James Bible.

1638

John Milton's Lycidas is published.

1698

The University Senate appoints 'Curators of the Press'.

1713

The second edition of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica is published.

1763

John Baskerville produces the folio Bible: one of the most beautiful Bibles ever published.

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.

1833

The Pitt Building, designed by the architect Edward Blore, opens.

1875

The first book catalogue is produced.

1877

The Press declines what was to become the Oxford English Dictionary.

1890

The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell are published in two volumes.

1893

We publish the first title in our Pitt Press series of Shakespeare editions for schools and our first journal, the Journal of Physiology.

1902

The first 12 volumes of Lord Acton's Cambridge Modern History are published.

1913

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

1949

The Press establishes a branch in New York.

1956

The first issue of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics is published.

1963

The University Printing House on Shaftesbury Road in Cambridge is opened.

1969

The Australia branch is established in Melbourne.

1975

We launch our English language teaching publishing business. Titles published in 1975 included: Sounds Interesting, Sounds Intriguing, The Mind’s Eye, Feelings, Poem into Poem and Variations on a Theme.

The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time by Professor Stephen Hawking is published.

1984

The Cambridge English Course (Level 1) by Swan & Walter is published.

1981

The Edinburgh Building is opened by Her Majesty The Queen.

1985

Ray Murphy's English Grammar in Use is published.

1992

We open our bookshop at 1 Trinity Street, Cambridge. This is one of the oldest bookshop sites in the country, as books have been sold continuously on the site since at least 1581.

1996

The first dedicated electronic books on CD-ROM are produced. The Iberia branch is established in Madrid.

1997

Cambridge Journals Online is launched.

1998

The Brazil branch is established in São Paulo and the Africa branch is established in Cape Town.

1999

Our first print-on-demand book is printed digitally and we also publish our first e-book. The Asia branch is established in Singapore.

2004

We make our books more easily discoverable as a founding member of Google Book Search.

2006

Historical Statistics of the United States, Millennial Edition is published in print and electronic formats. The India branch is established.

2007

We congratulate 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. The Middle East and North Africa branch is established.

2010

We take a large leap into the digital age by launching Cambridge Books Online, a platform for our e-books that gives researchers and academics all over the world access to thousands of academic and professional books. The Latin America branch is opened in Mexico City.

2011

University Publishing Online launches, providing access to e-books from the world-renowned publicity programmes of our partner presses.