Henri Estienne (elder)

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

Henry Estienne (1460?-1520), the first printer of this name, had an establishment of his own in Paris from 1503 to 1520. He was on friendly terms with some of the most learned men of the day, Guillaume Budé, Guillaume Briçonnet, and Jacobus Faber Stapulensis, and had among his proof-readers Beatus Rhenanus. Among his publications were Faber's editions of Aristotle, the Psalterium quincuplex, and his commentary on the Pauline Epistles.

Henry left three sons, François, Robert, and Charles. François Estienne (1502-1553) published a number of works which had no bearing upon theology. His few impressions, chiefly issues of the classics, were all in Latin except Psalterium and a Horae Virginis in Greek.

Charles Estienne (1504?-1564) studied medicine, wrote some works on natural history, and gained an honorable position both as scholar and as author. In 1551 he assumed control of the Paris printing establishment, on Robert's departure to Geneva, and printed a number of works until 1561, using the title "royal typographer" (typographus regius). One of his works that long remained an authority was a Dictionarium Latino-Gallicum, 1552. He published a number of smaller editions of Hebrew texts and targums, which were edited by Jean Mercier.

[edit] References

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