703 



STEPHENS. 



STEPHENS. 



704 



Justinian!, Justini, Leonis, Novelise Constitutiones,' &c., Greece, the 

 only work that be edited in the year 1558. After a series of years 

 the Augsburg merchants appear to have become tired of supporting 

 the great printer. In a collection of letters of Stephens, published by 

 PasBow in 1830, there are some which show that Stephens wanted 

 them to advance him a small sum of money which they had promised, 

 and that at length after much correspondence they did not keep their 

 promise. In consequence of this his connection with the Fuggers 

 ceased in 1576. 



In the year 1559 H. Stephens published his edition of Diodorus 

 Siculus in fol., in which ten books of this historian were printed for 

 the first time. The manuscript which he used for this edition is now 

 in the public library of Geneva. Other publications of this year are, 

 Appian's 'Hispanica et Annibalica,' with a Latin translation by Beral- 

 dus, in 8vo, and ' Gentium et Fatniliarum Romanarum Stemmata,' &c., 

 in foL In this year his father Robert died at Geneva, and Henry was 

 appointed executor of his will, in which he was also enjoined to take 

 care of his brothers. Robert, one of his brothers, had been, as it 

 appears, disinherited by the father because he would not abandon the 

 Roman Catholic faith and follow his father to Geneva. Accordingly 

 the printing establishment of Robert, the father, came into the hands 

 of Henry, who continued to publish theological works and several 

 editions of the Bible. H. Stephens appears now to have given up his 

 establishment at Paris, and to have devoted himself to the manage- 

 ment of that at Geneva. 



In the year 1555 H. Stephens married for the first time, but in 1564 

 or 1565 he himself states that his wife died. He afterwards married 

 again, for the letters published by Passow show that about the year 

 1581 he became a widower a second time. On his death in 1598, he 

 left a wife surviving, from which it appears that he was married thrice. 

 By his three wives he had altogether 14 children, ten of whom died 

 at an early age. 



In 1560 he published a collection of the lyric poets of Greece 

 with a Latin translation in 16mo, which has been often reprinted. 

 In the year following appeared his edition of Xenophon in fol., for 

 which he had collated a great number of manuscripts, and to which 

 he added a commentary and a Latin translation. An improved edi- 

 tion was published in 1581. During the last two years H. Stephens 

 was in bad health and subject to melancholy, arising from over- 

 exertion and the heavy cares that devolved upon him after his 

 father's death. In this state he scarcely worked at all ; he almost 

 conceived a disgust for literary occupations, and could not bear the 

 sight of a book. But the renewed activity into which he was drawn 

 unconsciously in 1562, restored him to health. The work which 

 roused him to fresh exertion was a Latin translation of ' Sexti Philo- 

 sophi Pyrrhoniarum Hypotyposeon Libri Tres.' The Greek original of 

 this work was not printed until 1621. It must have been soon after 

 his recovery that Stephens began his greatest work, the ' Thesaurus 

 Linguae Graccre,' upon which he spent ten years. In 1564 he wrote 

 and published a ' Dictionarium Medicum, vel Expositiones Vocum 

 Grsecarum Medicinalium, ad Verbum, excerptse ex Hippocrate, Are- 

 tseo,' &c., cum Latina Interpretatione, in 8vo. In this work he 

 received some assistance from J. M. Gesuer ; it was highly spoken of 

 by contemporary scholars, with the exception of Jos. Scaliger, who 

 censured it severely, but he appears to have had a personal pique 

 against Stephens. In this year Stephens edited a still-useful collec- 

 tion of ' Fragmenta Poetarum Latinorum, quorum Opera non extant,' 

 &c. in 8vo, and an edition of Thucydides with the Scholia, and a 

 Latin translation by L. Valla. In 1566 he published, among other 

 books, his ' Florilegium' of Greek Epigrams; 'Poetae Grseci Principes 

 Heroic! Carminis et alii nonnulli,' &c., in fol., which is most beautifully 

 printed, and his edition of Herodotus with Valla's translation and his 

 own ' Apologia pro Herodoto,' which he himself afterwards translated 

 into French. Passing over a great number of valuable publications 

 which appeared from 1566 till 1572, we proceed to the year 1572, in 

 which the Greek Thesaurus was published under the title 'Thesaurus 

 Graecao Linguae ab Henrico Stephano constructus. In quo praeter alia 

 plurima quac primus prrestitit (paternae in Thesauro Latino Diligentiae 

 semulus) Vocabula in certas Classes distribuit, multiplici Derivationum 

 Serie ad Priuuigenia tanquam ad Radices unde pullulant revocata,' 

 with the appendix and index, 5 vols. fol. This work made an epoch 

 in the history of Greek philology, as well as in the life of the author, 

 who had embarked in it nearly all his property. The price of this 

 prodigious work was necessarily high, and accordingly it could not 

 have many purchasers. When Scapula some years afterwards pub- 

 lished his cheap abridgement [SCAPOLA], the sale was nearly stopped, 

 and Stephens became involved in great difficulties. It has been sup- 

 posed by some that Stephens soon after published a second edition of 

 hia Thesaurus, but this opinion has merely arisen from the fact that he 

 cancelled a number of pages of the original edition, and inserted new 

 ones in their place. In 1745 Daniel Scott published, in 2 vols. fol., 

 'Appendix ad Thesaurim ab H. Stephano constructum.' A new 

 edition of the Thesaurus was published in London (1815-28) in 7 vols. 

 fol., with numerous additions by Barker, which however have not 

 increased the value of the book. A new edition is now in course of 

 publication at Paii<, which is edited by Base, and L. and W. Dindorf, 

 and of which 7 vols. fol. and eome parts of an 8th vol. have been 

 published. (1857.) 



It appears to have been owing to the pecuniary difficulties in which 

 Stephens was involved after the publication of his ' Thefaurus,' that, 

 in order to divert his mind, he made various excursions in France and 

 Germany, but he always took the opportunity of exploring libraries 

 and comparing manuscripts, and thus collected va^t quantities of 

 materials for works which he was publishing or projecting. In 1573 

 he published an edition of all the extant works of M. Terentius Varro 

 in 8vo, and a collection of the fragments of the philosophical poets of 

 Greece. The year following he produced an excellent edition of 

 Apollonius Rhodius with the ancient scholia and a commentary by 

 himself. In 1575 there appeared his collection of the Greek oratory, 

 some of which are accompanied by a Latin translation ; and Arrian's 

 ' Expeditio Alexandri Magui,' c., with a Latin translation. In l:>77 

 he published, among other books, an edition of Cicero's ' Epistolae ad 

 Familiares,' in 2 vols. 8vo; the second volume contains the com- 

 mentaries of P. Manutius, Lambinus, Sigonius, Canter, and of Stephens 

 himself. In 1578 he brought out his magnificent edition of Plato's 

 works, in 3 vols. folio ; and in the same year he wrote a little French 

 work, ' Deux Dialogues du Nouveau Largage Francois, Italianize' et 

 autrement desguizd, principalement entre les Courtisaus de ce Temps,' 

 &c. (printed without name and date). This was an attack upon the 

 fashion, very common at the time, of introducing Italian words into 

 French. Stephens, after the manuscript had received the ' imprimatur ' 

 from the state-council of Geneva, had taken the liberty of making 

 some additions, for which he was severely reprimanded by the council. 

 Not thinking himself quite safe, or wishing to escape the annoyance 

 to which this affair subjected him, he went, towards the end of 1578, 

 to Paris, where he remained during the whole of 1579. Henry III. 

 received him very kindly, and interested himself so much on Stephens'a 

 behalf, that he demanded of the council of Geneva permission for 

 Stephens to return, and to clear himself from the charges which were 

 brought against him. Stephens returned to Geneva, and was placed 

 at the bar of the consistory, where he was treated with rigour and 

 harshness, and for some days was put into prison. When Stephens at 

 last owned that he had acted wrong, he was set at liberty. 



During the stay which H. Stephens had made at Paris in 1579 he 

 bad a conversation with the king, in which he expatiated very inge- 

 niously on the superiority of the French language over other modern 

 tongues ; and the king, delighted with this eulogy on the French lan- 

 guage, persuaded him to write a book on the subject. This book was 

 published in the course of the same year, ' De la Precellence du Lan- 

 gage Francois,' 8vo, Paris, 1579. The king, pleased with the per- 

 formance, ordered 3000 francs to be paid to Stephens from the public 

 treasury, and also granted him an annual pension of 300 francs ; but 

 from the manner in which Stephens, in his ' Musa Priucipum Monitrix,' 

 speaks of this affair, it appears that he never received anything at all, 

 for the treasurer at that time was a person of much more consequence . 

 in such matters than the king. 



In 1581 Stephens published 'Juris Civilis Fontes et Rivi,' &c., in 

 8vo ; and, as is commonly supposed, also ' Sigouii Fasti Consulares.' 

 The latter he printed without the sanction of the Council of Geneva, 

 and was in consequence fined 25 thalers. This edition of the ' Fasti ' 

 of Sigonius, if it was really published by Stephens, must have been 

 suppressed, for there is no trace of it now. H. Stephens spent the 

 year 1585 again at Paris, where he published an excellent edition of 

 A. Gellius and of Macrobius, both in 8vo. The former is preceded by 

 a very interesting letter to his son Paul, from which, besides many 

 other things, we learn that about this time his country-house had been 

 destroyed by an earthquake, a loss which he bore with stoical indiffer- 

 ence. In 1588 he published an edition of the 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey/ 

 with a Latin translation. 



During the time that Stephens enjoyed the friendship of the King 

 of France, he spent a great part of his time at Paris. His publi- 

 cations during this period greatly decreased in number, and some of 

 them were executed by Paris printers. His own establishment at 

 Geneva was neglected. He was constantly travelling about, and he 

 published his works wherever he happened to be, as at Paris, Frank- 

 furt, Basel, &c. From this fact it has been erroneously supposed that 

 he had separate printing-establishments in these places. He often 

 resolved to give up this wandering life, and was seriously exhorted by 

 his friends to attend to his business; but the charms of a court life 

 and the habit of travelling had now become strong, and he was 

 dazzled by splendour and deceived by the hopes which he placed in 

 the great. The years 1588 and 1589 he appears however to have 

 spent at Geneva, and several works again issued from his press ; but 

 in 1590 no work came out at Geneva, and only one ('Principum 

 Monitrix Musa ') at Frankfurt, where he appears to have spent some 

 time. In this year Henri III. of France was murdered. The affairs 

 of Stephens now grew worse and worse : his warehouses were full of 

 books which he could not sell. In the year 1597 he left Geneva for 

 France. He first stayed for some time at Montpellier, where Florence, 

 one of his daughters, resided, who was married to Isaac Casaubon. 

 Casaubon was just preparing his edition of Athenaeus, and Stephens 

 offered his assistance, which was refused. He then proceeded through 

 various other places to Lyon, where he was takeu ill; and feeling 

 solitary and forlorn, and having no friends there, he was carried to a 

 public hospital, where he died, in the beginning of March 1 598, at the 

 age of nearly seventy years. Some writers say that he died out of 





