This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2006)

Robert Estienne, from a book frontispiece

Robert I Estienne (Paris 1503 – Geneva, 7 September 1559), known as Robertus Stephanus in Latin^[1] and also referred to as Robert Stephens by 18th and 19th-century English writers, was a 16th century printer and classical scholar in Paris. He was a former Catholic who became a Protestant late in his life and the first to print the Bible divided into standard numbered verses.

Life[link]

Robert was the second son of the famous humanist printer Henri Estienne (the Elder) and became acquainted early on with ancient languages. After Henri's death in 1520 the printing establishment was maintained by his former partner Simon de Colines who also married Robert's mother, the widow Estienne. In 1526 Robert assumed control of his father's printing shop while de Colines established his own firm nearby.^[2][3]

In 1539 Robert adopted as his device an olive branch around which a serpent was twined, and a man standing under an olive-tree, with grafts from which wild branches were falling to the ground, with the words of Romans 11:20, Noli altum sapere, sed time… ("Be not high-minded, but fear.") The latter was called the olive of the Stephens family.

In 1539, he received the distinguishing title of "Printer in Greek to the king." But the official recognition and the crown's approval to his undertaking could not save him from the censure and ceaseless opposition of the divines, and in 1550, to escape the violence of his persecutors, he emigrated to Geneva where he set up his printing house.

With his title of "royal typographer" Estienne made the Paris establishment famous by his numerous editions of grammatical works and other school-books (among them many of Melanchthon's), and of classical and Patristic authors, as Dio Cassius, Cicero, Sallust, Julius Caesar, Justin, Socrates Scholasticus, and Sozomen. Many of these, especially the Greek editions (which were printed with typefaces made by Claude Garamond), were famous for their typographical elegance. The editiones principes which issued from Robert's press were eight in number, viz . Eusebius of Caesarea, including the Praeparatio evangelica and the Demonstratio evangelica as well as the Historia ecclesiastica (1544-1546), Manuel Moschopulus (1545), Dionysius of Halicarnassus (February 1547), Alexander of Tralles (January 1548), Dio Cassius (January 1548), Justin Martyr (1551), Xiphilinus (1551), Appian (1551), the last being completed, after Robert's departure from Paris, by his brother Charles, and appearing under his name. These editions, all in folio, except the Moschopulus, which is in quarto, are unrivalled for beauty. Robert also printed numerous editions of Latin classics, of which perhaps the folio Virgil of 1532 is the most noteworthy, and a large quantity of Latin grammars and other educational works, many of which were written by Maturin Cordier, his friend and co-worker in the cause of humanism.

Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars

In 1532, he published the remarkable Thesaurus linguae latinae, and twice he published the entire Hebrew Bible — "one with the Commentary of Kimchi on the minor prophets, in 13 vols. 4to (quarto) (Paris, 1539-43), another in 10 vols. 16mo (sextodecimo) (ibid. 1544-46)."^[4] Both of these editions are rare.

Of more importance are his four editions of the Greek New Testament, 1546, 1549, 1550, and 1551, the last in Geneva. The first two are among the neatest Greek texts known, and are called O mirificam; the third is a splendid masterpiece of typographical skill, and is known as the Editio Regia; the edition of 1551 contains the Latin translation of Erasmus and the Vulgate, is not nearly as fine as the other three, and is exceedingly rare. It was in this edition that the division of the New Testament into verses was for the first time introduced.

A number of editions of the Vulgate also appeared from his presses, of which the principal are those of 1528, 1532, 1540 (one of the ornaments of his press), and 1546. The text of the Vulgate was in a wretched condition, and his editions, especially that of 1546, containing a new translation at the side of the Vulgate, was the subject of sharp and acrimonious criticism from the clergy.

On his arrival at Geneva, he published a defense against the attacks of the Sorbonne. He issued the French Bible in 1553, and many of John Calvin's writings; the finest edition of the Institutio being that of 1553. His fine edition of the Latin Bible with glosses (1556) contained the translation of the Old Testament by Santes Pagninus, and the first edition of Theodore Beza's Latin edition of the New Testament.^[5]

Sons[link]

Three of Robert's sons, Henri, Robert, and François, became celebrated as printers. François (b. 1540) printed on his own account in Geneva from 1562–1582, issuing a number of editions of the Bible in Latin and French, and some of Calvin's works. French writers identify him with a printer by the name of Estienne in Normandy, to which he is supposed to have emigrated in 1582.

Robert Estienne Jr. (1530–1570) began to print in Paris on his own account in 1556, and in 1563 received the title of Typographus regius; his presses were busily employed in issuing civil documents. He held to the Catholic faith and thus won the support of Charles IX, and by 1563 appears to have fully reconstituted his father's establishment in Paris. His edition of the New Testament of 1568–1569, a reprint of his father's first edition and equal to it in elegance of execution, is now exceedingly rare.

See also[link]

• Estienne
• Henri Estienne
• Chapters and verses of the Bible
• Textus Receptus

Notes[link]

Sources[link]

• Martin, Henri-Jean (1982) « Le temps de Robert Estienne », Histoire de l'édition française, vol. 1, Paris, pp. 230–235 ISBN 2-903181-06-3
• Schreiber, Fred (1982) The Estiennes: an annotated catalogue of 300 highlights of their various presses. New York: E. K. Schreiber

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed. (1914). "^{article name needed}". New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls. 

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert Estienne

• Exemplaires numérisés d'anciennes éditions d'œuvres de Robert Estienne sur le site des Bibliothèques virtuelles humanistes
• Robert Estienne sur le Musée virtuel du protestantisme français.

Trésor de la langue grecque (reedited in 1830)

Henri Estienne (1528 or 1531 - 1598), also known as Henricus Stephanus, was a sixteenth-century French printer and classical scholar. He was the eldest son of Robert Estienne.

Biography[link]

Estienne was born in Paris.

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; Herodotus, both 1566 and 1581; and Sophocles, in 1568. 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 four volumes in 1572, with a supplement in two volumes. This work was begun by his father.

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

He died in Lyon in 1598.

Family[link]

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 du Duc'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.

See also[link]

• Stephanus pagination

References[link]

• Schreiber, Fred (1982) The Estiennes: An Annotated Catalogue of Three Hundred Highlights of Their Various Presses (New York: E. K. Schreiber).
• Jehasse, Jean (1976) La Renaissance de la critique: l'essor de l'Humanisme érudit de 1560 à 1614, Presses universitaires de Saint-Etienne.
• Books by Bénédicte Boudou:

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

• Articles by Bénédicte Boudou :

1. Henri Estienne lecteur des traductions latines des Psaumes, Biblia, Presses de l’Université de Paris Sorbonne, janvier 2008, p. 129-143.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Traduttore, traditore, Henri Estienne et la trahison philologique, Réforme, Humanisme, Renaissance, n° 63, décembre 2006, p. 39-58.
6. Proverbes et formules gnomiques chez Henri Estienne, De l’Histoire à la Poésie, Seizième siècle, n° 1, 2005, p. 161-174.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. La place de la mémoire dans la composition chez Henri Estienne, Nouvelle Revue du XVIe siècle, 2002, n° 20/2, p. 57-72.
10. 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.
11. La laideur italienne, selon Henri Estienne, Littérales n° 28, Propos sur les Muses et la laideur, 2001, pp. 143–156.
12. Henri Estienne éditeur d’historiens, ou Comment écrire l’Histoire ?, Nouvelle Revue du Seizième siècle, 2001, n° 19/1, p. 37-50.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. Les contes pour rire dans l’Apologie pour Hérodote, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et de Renaissance, tome LVII, 1995, n° 2, p. 321-344.
16. Les histoires tragiques dans l’Apologie pour Hérodote d’Henri Estienne, Studi Francesi, n° 104, Anno XXXV, Fascicolo II, 1992, p. 207-226.
17. La poétique d’Henri Estienne, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, t.LII, 1990, n° 3, p. 571-592.

This article relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Discussion about the problems with the sole source used may be found on the talk page. (February 2012)

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2012)

Charles Estienne (1504–1564) was an early exponent of the science of anatomy in France. Charles was a younger brother of Robert Estienne I, the famous printer, and son to Henri, who Latinized the family name as Stephanus. He married Geneviève de Berly.

After the usual humanistic training he studied medicine, and took his doctor's degree at Paris. He was for a time tutor to Jean-Antoine de Baïf, the future poet. It is uncertain whether he taught publicly. His career was interrupted by the oppressive persecutions in which their religious opinions involved the family.

Éstienne, though from a family whose classical taste was their principal glory, did not betray the same servile imitation of the Galenian anatomy as his contemporary, Jacques Dubois. He appears to have been the first to detect valves in the orifice of the hepatic veins. He was ignorant, however, of the researches of the Italian anatomists; and his description of the brain is inferior to that given sixty years before by Alessandro Achillini. His comparison of the cerebral cavities to the human ear has persuaded F. Portal that he knew the inferior cornua, the hippocampus and its prolongations; but this is no reason for giving him that honour to the detriment of the reputation of Achillini, to whom, so far as historical testimony goes, the first knowledge of this fact is due.

The researches of Éstienne into the structure of the nervous system are, however, neither useless nor inglorious; and the circumstance of demonstrating a canal through the entire length of the spinal cord, which had neither been suspected by contemporaries nor noticed by successors till Jean-Baptiste de Sénac (1693–1770) made it known, is sufficient to place him high in the rank of anatomical discoverers.

In 1551, when Robert Estienne left Paris for Geneva, Charles, who had remained a Catholic, took charge of his printing establishment, and in the same year was appointed king's printer. In 1561 he became bankrupt, and he is said to have died in a debtors' prison.

His principal works are:

• Praedium Rusticum (1554), a collection of tracts which he had compiled from ancient writers on various branches of agriculture, and which continued to be a favorite book down to the end of the 17th century
• Dictionarium historicum ad policum (1553), the first French encyclopedia
• Thesaurus Ciceronianus (1557)
• De dissectione partium corporis humani libri tres, with well-drawn woodcuts (1545)

He also published a translation of an Italian comedy, Gli Ingannati, under the title of Le Sacrifice (1543; republished as Les Abus, 1549), which had some influence on the development of French comedy; and Paradoxes (1553), an imitation of the Paradossi of Ortensio Landi.

His daughter Nicole Estienne became a prolific poet.

References[link]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links[link]

• Charles Estienne: De dissectione partium corporis humani libri tres. (Paris, 1545). Selected pages scanned from the original work. Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine.
• Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries High resolution images of works by and/or portraits of Charles Estienne in .jpg and .tiff format.