Henry Estienne

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Henri Estienne, also known as Henricus Stephanus or Henry Stephens, was a 16th-century Parisian printer.

Henry Estienne, the eldest son of the great Robert Estienne, was born in Paris in 1528 (some sources say 1531), and died at Lyon in 1598.

He displayed in his youth a genuine enthusiasm for Greek and Latin; and his father took special pains with his education, and, as a part of his general training, he undertook in his nineteenth year a protracted journey to Italy, England, and Flanders, where he busied himself in collecting and collating manuscripts for his father's press.

In 1554 he published at Paris his first independent work, the Anacreon. Then he went again to Italy, helping Aldus at Venice, discovered a copy of Diodorus Siculus at Rome, and returned to Geneva in 1555.

In 1557 he seems to have had a printing establishment of his own, and, in the spirit of modern times, advertised himself as the "Parisian printer" (typographus parisiensis). The following year he assumed the title, illustris viri Huldrici Fuggeri typographus, from his patron, Ulrich Fugger.

In 1559 Henry assumed charge of his father's presses, and distinguished himself as the publisher, and also as the editor and collator, of manuscripts. Works of Athenagoras, Aristotle, and Aeschylus appeared in 1557; Diodorus Siculus, 1559; Xenophon, 1561; Sextus Empiricus, 1562; Thucydides, 1564; and Herodotus, in both 1566 and 1581. His complete edition of Plato's dialogues in 1578 is the basis of their now standard Stephanus pagination. He improved old translations, or made new Latin translations, of many Greek authors.

His most celebrated work, the Thesaurus linguae graecae, or Greek thesaurus, which served up to the nineteenth century as the basis of Greek lexicography, appeared in 4 volumes in 1572, with a supplement in two volumes.

Of the editions of the Greek New Testament that went forth from his presses, those of Beza with his commentary deserve mention. A triglot containing the Peshitta appeared in 1569, of which some copies are in existence, bearing the date Lyon, 1571. In 1565 a large French Bible was printed.

Henry's own editions of the Greek New Testament of 1576 and 1587 are noteworthy; the former containing the first scientific treatise on the language of the apostolic writers; the latter, a discussion of the ancient divisions of the text. In 1594 he published a concordance of the New Testament, the preparatory studies for which his father had made.

Much earlier he translated Calvin's catechism into Greek, which was printed in 1554 in his father's printing room.

Henry was married three times, and had fourteen children, of whom three survived him. His son Paul (born 1567), of whose life little is known, assumed control of the presses. Two of Paul's sons were printers — Joseph at La Rochelle, and Antoine (died 1674), who became "Printer to the King" in Paris in 1613. Fronton Leduc's Chrysostom, and Jean Morin's Greek Bible (3 vols., 1628) were issued from Antoine's presses.

His son Henry succeeded to the title of "Printer to the King" in 1649, and his work closed about 1659. This Henry left no children, and was the last of the family who took active interest in editing and printing.

References

Schreiber, Fred. The Estiennes: an annotated catalogue of 300 highlights of their various presses (New York: E.K. Schreiber, c1982).

Jean Jehasse, La Renaissance de la critique. L'essor de l'Humanisme érudit de 1560 à 1614, Presses universitaires de Saint-Etienne, 1976.

Books by Bénédicte Boudou :

L’Apologie pour Hérodote d’Henri Estienne, Droz, Textes littéraires français, 2 volumes, 2007,1215 p.
Henri II Estienne éditeur et écrivain, Bénédicte Boudou, Judit Keskéméti, Jean Céard et Hélène Cazes, Brépols, 2003, 764 p.
Mars et les Muses dans l’Apologie pour Hérodote d’Henri Estienne, Droz, THR n° 335, 2000, 686 p.

Articles by Bénédicte Boudou :

Henri Estienne lecteur des traductions latines des Psaumes, Biblia, Presses de l’Université de Paris Sorbonne, janvier 2008, p. 129-143.
Le voyage satirique à Paris dans l’Apologie pour Hérodote d’Henri Estienne, RITM n° 37, éd. C. Leroy et G. Chamarat, 2007, p. 15-30.
Place et signification de l’animal sauvage dans l’Apologie pour Hérodote d’Henri Estienne, L'animal sauvage à la Renaissance, éd. Ph. Ford, juillet 2007, p. 33-50.
Deux regards sur le suicide dans la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle : Henri Estienne et Montaigne, Littérales n° 38, Horreurs et limites, 2007, p. 9-40.
Traduttore, traditore, Henri Estienne et la trahison philologique, Réforme, Humanisme, Renaissance, n° 63, décembre 2006, p. 39-58.
Proverbes et formules gnomiques chez Henri Estienne, De l’Histoire à la Poésie, Seizième siècle, n° 1, 2005, p. 161-174.
La réception d’Hérodote au XVIe siècle, Grecs et Romains aux prises avec l’Histoire, Représentations, Récits et idéologies, Presses universitaires de Rennes, éd. G. Lachenaud, 2003, vol. 2, p. 729-743.
Henri Estienne et la traduction par Sébastien Castellion de la Bible en français, Cité des hommes, cité de Dieu, Mélanges offerts à Daniel Ménager, 2003, p. 523-532.
La place de la mémoire dans la composition chez Henri Estienne, Nouvelle Revue du XVIe siècle, 2002, n° 20/2, p. 57-72.
Le chroniqueur du temps présent dans l’Apologie pour Hérodote, Histoire et Littérature au siècle de Montaigne, Mélanges offerts à Cl.-G. Dubois, Droz, 2002, p. 51-62.
La laideur italienne, selon Henri Estienne, Littérales n° 28, Propos sur les Muses et la laideur, 2001, pp. 143-156.
Henri Estienne éditeur d’historiens, ou Comment écrire l’Histoire ?, Nouvelle Revue du Seizième siècle, 2001, n° 19/1, p. 37-50.
Le Commentariolus de Henri Estienne sur la Correspondance de Cicéron, L’Épistolaire en France, Actes du Centre V-L Saulnier, éd. C. Magnien, mars 2001, p. 33-49.
La place de l’Apologie pour Hérodote d’Henri Estienne dans les Essais de Montaigne, Bulletin de la société internationale des Amis de Montaigne, n° 15-16, juil.-déc. 1999, p. 33-49.
Les contes pour rire dans l’Apologie pour Hérodote, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et de Renaissance, tome LVII, 1995, n° 2, p. 321-344.
Les histoires tragiques dans l’Apologie pour Hérodote d’Henri Estienne, Studi Francesi, n° 104, Anno XXXV, Fascicolo II, 1992, p. 207-226.
La poétique d’Henri Estienne, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, t.LII, 1990, n° 3, p. 571-592.

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