701 



STEPHENS. 



STEPHENS. 



702 



he treated his subjects chiefly iu relation to antiquity. His earliest 

 productions are abridgements of works by Lazarus Baifius, such as 

 'De Re Vestiaria;' 'De Vasculis;' and 'De Ke Navali,' which were 

 published by Robert Stephens (1535 and 1537). Lazarus Baifius 

 (Lazare Baif ) engaged Charles Stephens as tutor to his son, and in 

 1540 took him with his son to Germany, and afterwards to Italy, to 

 which countries he was sent as ambassador of the King of France. In 

 Italy Stephens became acquainted with Paulus Manutius, who iu one 

 of his letters (v. 17) speaks of him in high terms. On hia return to 

 Paris he appears to have continued the practice of medicine, but in 

 1651, when Robert removed to Geneva, the whole of his printing 

 establishment, with the exception perhaps of the department for 

 printing Hebrew, which appears to have been undertaken by Martinus 

 Juvenis, passed into the hands of Charles Stephens, for the Editio 

 princeps of ' Appiani Alexandria! Historiarum Romanarum Celtica, 

 Libyca vel Carthaginiensis, Illyrica, Syriaca, Parthica, Mithridatica, 

 Civilis quiuque libris distincta,' which appeared at Paris in 1551, 

 ' Cura ao Diligentia Caroli Stephani,' is probably the first book which 

 ho printed, though it had been prepared or commenced by Robert 

 Stephens. It is a beautiful specimen of typography. There is a 

 French translation of a treatise of Plutarch, called ' Traictd sur la 

 Honte vicieuse,' by F. Legrand, which is by some referred to the year 

 1544, and is supposed to be the first book printed by Charles Stephens; 

 but it probably belongs to the year 1554. Soon after llobert left 

 Paris, Charles appears to have been appointed Royal Printer, for this 

 title is mentioned on his last two publications of the year 1551. 

 Henceforth he continued to be very active in his new sphere till the 

 year 1561, for in these ten years there issued from his press 97 works, 

 on a great variety of subjects, some of which he had written himself. 

 Charles Stephens seems to have been a man who knew something of 

 everything, but nothing very well. His character as a man has been 

 attacked in a letter of Maumontius addressed to J. Scaliger, in which 

 he is called a "malus" and a "male volens homo," and is charged 

 with unkind conduct towards his nephews, the sons of Robert. But 

 as we hear of no accusations of this kind from any other quarter, the 

 impartiality of the writer may be doubted. Charles Stephens died in 

 the year 1564. Some say that he was persecuted for his religious 

 opinions, and died iu prison ; others state that he was imprisoned for 

 debt in the Chatelet, and that he remained there for the last three 

 years of his life. It may be that both causes combined to bring this 

 misery upon him; for we know that he lost a great deal of his capital 

 in 1557, by the publication of his 'Thesaurus Ciceroniauus,' which 

 was a very expensive undertaking, and did not sell. It is also certain 

 that during the last three years of his life no work appeared from his 

 press. He left one daughter of the name of Nicole, who was no less 

 celebrated for her beauty than for her talents and accomplishments. 



Lists of the works which were written or printed by Charles 

 Stephens are given by Maittaire and Renouard. All the works of C. 

 Stephens are very beautifully printed. 



HENRY STEPHENS n., the greatest of the whole family, was the son of 

 Robert and grandson of Henry. He was born at Paris in 1528. Even as 

 a child he showed extraordinary talents. The numerous engagements 

 of his father did not allow him to spend much time upon the education 

 of the boy; but he carefully watched and regulated it. Latin he 

 learnt naturally, as it was constantly spoken in the family, but before 

 he seriously studied it the father made him learn Greek. He received 

 his first instruction in Greek from a schoolmaster, who while reading 

 the ' Medea' of Euripides with his boys, made it the practice to assign 

 a part to each of them ; and as soon as Henry had made sufficient 

 progress to join them, he read this play with the greatest avidity, ami 

 soon knew it all by heart. After he had spent some time at this 

 school, he was instructed in Greek by Petrus Danesius, who was then, 

 next to Budseus, perhaps the ablest Greek scholar of the time : and 

 who, on account of his intimate friendship with Robert Stephens, took 

 great interest in the progress of his pupil. At the age of about fifteen 

 Henry also enjoyed the instruction of Jacobus Tusanus (Jacques 

 Toussain) ; and subsequently, when this scholar died (1547), that of 

 Adrianus Turnebus, who succeeded Tusauus in the professorship of 

 Greek in the Royal College. Although he had been chiefly instructed 

 in Greek by these men, he did not neglect Latin ; for even when a boy 

 he is said to have known by heart the first book of Horace's ' Epistles.' 

 He also studied mathematics ; and as soon as he heard something of 

 astrology, he conceived a strong desire to become acquainted with 

 it, and in taking lessons in it wasted much money and time, but he 

 soon became aware of the futility of these pursuits, and gave them up 

 altogether. 



In 1546 Robert Stephens thought his son qualified to assist him 

 in his printing establishment, and in this year Henry collated a 

 manuscript of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, whose works Robert was 

 preparing for publication. In the year following, when the death of 

 Francis I. deprived Robert of his chief patron, Henry undertook a 

 journey to Italy, the main object of which was to search the libraries 

 and examine the manuscripts in that country. Three years were 

 spent in visiting the various places of Italy. In several towns his 

 exertions were rewarded with discoveries ; at Florence he found in a 

 manuscript of the Medicean library a number of Greek poems not 

 known before, which were the 'Epitaphia Homericorum Heroum.' 

 He afterwards printed them in his ' Florilegium Epigram. Grzec.,' 



1566, and also in his ' Homeri et Hesiodi Certamen,' 1573. At Naples 

 and Venice he examined several manuscripts. At liome he was very 

 kindly received by Cardinal Sirlet, who communicated to him a 

 manuscript of Athenagoras, and corrections of several passages in 

 Xenophon, of which he subsequently made use in his edition of 

 Xenophon, 1561. It appears that during this journey he also made a 

 collation of a manuscript of Athenaeus in the Farnesian library, the 

 various readings of which he communicated to I. Caaauboti, who used 

 them in his edition of Athenaeus (1597). At the same time he made 

 the acquaintance of the most distinguished scholars of the age, such 

 as Muretus, P. Manutius, C. Sigoniuc, P. Vettori, Cardinal Maffeo, and 

 many others. On his return, in the year 1549, he brought with him 

 the treasures which he had discovered and collected. This was just 

 at the time when his father was finishing his folio edition of the 

 Greek Testament, for which Henry wrote sixty Greek verses which 

 were prefixed to it. About the same time he wrote notae and 

 argumenta for the edition of Horace, which Robert published in 1549. 

 In 1550 Henry Stephens set out on a journey to England, where he 

 was kiudly received by Edward VI. His stay was not long, but ho 

 appears to have paid great attention to everything that came in his 

 way, and turned it to good account. He himself mentions some 

 interesting circumstances connected with his visit to England in his 

 'Apologia pro Herodoto,' and in the preface to his edition of the 

 'Poetao Heroici GrascL' On his return from England he visited 

 Flanders, Brabant, and the University of Louvain (Loewen). During 

 his short stay in the Netherlands, he made himself master of the 

 Spanish language. On his return to Paris towards the end of the 

 year 1551 his father was preparing to quit France, and it is not 

 improbable that Henry accompanied him to Geneva. This is however 

 not quite certain, for in 1554 we find him at Paris, where he published 

 the Editio princeps of Anacreon, in 4to, with a Latin translation and 

 notes by himself. Whether at this time he had a printing establish- 

 ment of his own, or whether he printed his book in that of his unclo 

 Charles, is uncertain, although the latter is more probable, for in the 

 same year he edited ' Dionysii Halicarnassei Responsio ad Cn. Pompeii 

 Epistolam,' &c., the title-page of which expressly states that it was 

 printed by Charles Stephens. 



The first indication of a printing establishment belonging to Henry 

 Stephens occurs towards the end of the year 1556, when'Davidis 

 Psalmi aliquot Latino Carmine expressi a Quatuor lllustribus Poetis, 

 quos Quatuor Regiones, Gallia, Italia, Germania, Scotia, genuerunt,' &c. 

 appeared, with the addition, ' Ex officina Henrici Stephani.' Towards 

 the end of the year 1554 he made a second journey to Italy, and dis- 

 covered at Rome a considerable part of the historical work of Diodorus 

 Siculus, which had not then been printed, and which he afterwards 

 inserted in his edition of 1559. In 1555 he went from Rome to 

 Naples in search of something which appears to have been of import- 

 ance to the king of France, and to his ambassador at Venice, Odet de 

 Selve, but it is not stated what the object of his search was. The 

 circumstance that the king of France was then at war with the Emperor 

 Charles V., brought H. Stephens into great danger at Naples, for he 

 was there discovered by some Italian who had met him at Venice in 

 the house of the French ambassador, and when Stephens was on the 

 point of being arrested, he only saved himself by insisting upon his 

 being an Italian, and he spoke the language so well that the Italian was 

 at last persuaded, and let him go. On his return to Venice he ren- 

 dered an account of his mission to the ambassador, who was well 

 pleased with the manner in which he had executed his instructions. 

 At Venice Stephens made a collation of a manuscript of Diogenes 

 Laertius in the library of St. Mark, which had originally belonged to 

 Cardinal Bessarion, and which he used for his edition of Diogenes of 

 1570. He also examined two manuscripts of Xenophon, one of which 

 he made use of in his edition of 1561. 



During the year 1557, when Stephens was in the full possession of a 

 printing establishment, he published seven new works, some of which 

 had never been printed before ; among them are the Editio princeps of 

 ' Maximi Tyrii, Philosophi Platonici, Sermones, sive Disputationes 

 XLI., Grace, nunc primum editse,' with a Latin translation ; yEschy- 

 lus, with notes by P. Victorius and H. Stephens ; ' Ex Ctesia, Agathar- 

 chide, Memnone excerptse Historise ; Appiani Iberica. Item, de Gestis 

 Annibalis: Greece. Omnia uunc primum edita, cum H. Stephani 

 Castigationibus ; ' and ' Ciceronianum Lexicon Grseco-Latinum,' &c. 

 Henry adopted the emblem (an olive-tree) and the device of his 

 father, ' noli altum sapere,' to which is sometimes added, ' sed time.' 

 Another device of his which sometimes occurs is, ' ut ego insererer, 

 defracti sunt rami,' which contains an allusion to the branches which 

 are represented as engrafted upon the olive-tree. The travels of 

 Stephens and the printing of expensive books had embarrassed his 

 affairs, and after the year 1557 he found himself in great difficulties, 

 but he was assisted by Ulrich Fugger, a wealthy merchant of Augs- 

 burg, who, besides g, large sum which he gave or advanced to him, 

 gave him an annuity of 150 thalers. Stephens from gratitude for 

 this munificent liberality, henceforth called himself Typographus 

 Huldrici Fuggeri, or Fuggerorum Typographus, which appears on 

 most of his publications down to the year 1568. The Fuggers 

 assisted Stephens also in other respects; they had an excellent 

 library and some valuable manuscripts, which they allowed him to 

 use for bis editions of ancient works, as in that of ' Imperatorum 



