Stephănus
the Latinized form of Estienne, in English sometimes absurdly
called Stephens. The name of a celebrated family of printers,
publishers, and classical scholars (descended from a noble Provençal family), found
settled at Paris towards 1500 in the person of Henry, who is
supposed to have been born about 1470, and died in 1520. In Paris Henry carried on the
business of printer and bookseller for upwards of twenty years. In 1526 Robert, his second son, born 1503, is found in possession of the business. Every year
of Robert's life is marked by the issue from his printing-press of several volumes, many of
them masterpieces of art, and all of them surpassing anything of the kind previously seen in
France. He was at once printer, publisher, commentator, and author. In 1532 he published a
Latin dictionary (
Thesaurus Linguae Latinae) which for two centuries remained
the standard work. He also published editions of several classical authors and numerous Latin
grammars. His Bible of 1545, and his Greek Testament of 1549, each drew down upon him a
religious prosecution; and though the prosecutions failed legally, they were disastrous to his
private fortune. Having first sent his family to Geneva, he followed them there in 1549.
Robert, his second son, shortly afterwards returned to Paris, where he resumed his father's
business.
The second Henry, born at Paris in 1528, succeeded his father,
Robert, on his death in 1559. Though Henry possessed the same literary industry and ability as
his father, he was unfortunately deficient in his father's practical turn of mind. Devoted to
his art and to his calling, he seems to have been utterly wanting in worldly prudence. In two
years we find that he had revised and published more than 4000 pages of Greek text, including
some twenty
editiones principes; while at the same time he was writing
his
Apologia pro Herodoto (1566)—a work of formidable
length and learning. Rendered nervous and irritable by an overworked brain, and by pecuniary
difficulties, travelling, originally undertaken from literary curiosity, grew into a necessity
of his life, and he visited England, the Netherlands, and Italy, examining classical
manuscripts and making the acquaintance of distinguished scholars. In 1572 appeared his great
Greek lexicon (
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae), in five folio volumes, on which he
spent nearly his whole fortune (last reprint by Didot, 9 vols. [Paris, 1831- 65]). In 1578 he
visited Paris, where for several years he became a hanger-on of the court of Henry III., who
bestowed upon him a pension, which the state of the royal exchequer rendered merely nominal.
Quitting Paris, he wandered in poverty over Europe, his own family often ignorant of where he
was to be found. He died at Lyons in 1598. Great as a publisher and commentator, Henry
Estienne does not seem to have possessed much power as an original thinker, but his mastery of
Greek seems to have been almost complete, and as a critic of the French language he is still
esteemed in France. The traditions of the family were kept up by Paul
(1566-1627) and Antoine
(1592-1674). See Feugère,
Caractères et
Portraits Littéraires du XVI. Siècle (Paris, 1864);
also article in
Quarterly Review (London, April, 1865); Bernard,
Les Estiennes (Paris, 1856); Renouard,
L'Imprimerie
des Étiennes (Paris, 1843); and the paper in Pattison's
Essays (Oxford, 1889).
