From his Repository of the Arts at 101 The Strand, London, the Anglo-German engineer, printer and entrepreneur Rudolph Ackermann (1764-1834) published numerous lavishly illustrated books on literature, art, fashion and architecture. His shop, one of the first in London to be lit by gas, provided up-to-date information about the latest fashions, and became a popular haunt for sophisticated members of the upper classes.

In 1814 and 1815 he published two-volume histories of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, each beautifully illustrated with many hand-coloured...