402 



STEPHENS. 



heresy in his dominions, he replied, that there were 

 three tiling which God only could do to make 

 KNuething of nothing, to foresee the future, and to 

 command consciences. He died December 12, 1586, 

 after a reign of ten years, and in the 54th year of 

 his age, probably of poison. 



STEPHENS, OR STEPHANUS (the English 

 and Latin forms of Estienne); the name of two 

 distinguished scholars and printers. Robert, born 

 in 1503, at Paris, devoted himself to learned 

 studies. He possessed a profound knowledge of 

 Latin, Greek and Hebrew, as the works edited by 

 him in those languages evince. After his father's 

 death, he was for several years connected with Si- 

 mon do Collines, and superintended an edition of 

 the New Testament, which was more correct and 

 of a more convenient form than any which had yet 

 appeared. The rapid sale of this edition disturbed 

 the doctors of the Sorbonne, who only wished for 

 a pretence to forbid the dissemination of a book, 

 from which the adherents of the new doctrines, 

 which Stephens embraced, drew all their argu- 

 ments. Robert soon after married Petronella, the 

 daughter of the printer Jodocus Badius Ascensius, 

 who was so well acquainted with Latin, that she 

 taught it to her children and servants; and there 

 was no person in the house who did not speak 

 Latin fluently. About 1526, Stephens erected a 

 press in his own name, from which proceeded a 

 series of the most valuable works. Most of his 

 editions of the Greek and Roman classics were en- 

 riched with notes and valuable preliminary treatises. 

 He endeavoured to attain the greatest possible cor- 

 rectness, and for this purpose hung up his proof- 

 sheets publicly, and offered a reward for the dis- 

 covery of errors. At first he printed with the 

 types of his father and Simon de Collines; but 

 about 1532 he had a handsomer type cast, with 

 which he printed the elegant Latin Bible, dated 

 that year. This drew upon him new persecutions, 

 which, however, were averted by the protection of 

 king Francis I., and by his promising to print noth- 

 ing more without the consent of the Sorbonne. In 

 1531, he published the first edition of his excellent 

 Thesaurus Lingua Latince, which he improved in 

 every successive impression, and which Gessner has 

 since taken as the basis of his. In 1539, he was 

 appointed printer of Latin and Hebrew to the king. 

 At his request, Francis I. caused the beautiful types 

 to be cast, which are still in possession of the royal 

 press at Paris. The new attacks which he suffered, 

 in consequence of his Bible of 1545, were rendered 

 harmless for a time by the favour of the king ; but 

 after his death they were renewed with increased 

 violence, and Stephens was at length forced to 

 abandon France. In 1552, he went to Geneva, 

 where, in connexion with his brother-in-law, he 

 printed the New Testament in French, and esta- 

 blished a new press of his own, from which several 

 valuable works were issued. He died in 1559. 

 His Hebrew Bibles (4 vols., 4to., and 8 vols , 

 16mo.); the Latin Bible (folio, 153840); the 

 New Testament (folio. 1550), which was formerly 

 regarded as the most beautiful Greek book ever 

 printed; his Historian Ecclesiastics Scriptores; 

 Eusebii Preparatio et Demonstratio Evangelica ; his 

 Dionysius of Halicarnassus ; Dio Cassius (first com- 

 plete edition) ; and his Terence, Cicero, Plautus, 

 &c., are highly esteemed. 



Equally celebrated is the son, Henry, born at 

 Paris, in 1528. He was distinguished for his 

 talents, and devoted himself particularly to the study 



of Greek. The celebrated Peter Danes was his 

 instructor. He also enjoyed the teaching of one 

 Tusanus Turnebus, and in a short, time hrcame. one 

 of the most able Hellenists of his age. His rapid 

 progress in the Latin language is shown by his an- 

 notations on Horace, published at the age of twenty 

 years. He likewise studied the mathematical 

 sciences with zeal. In 1547, he went to Italy, to 

 avail himself of the treasures contained in the 

 libraries at Florence, Rome, Naples, and Venice, 

 and brought away several valuable copies of the 

 classics. He also visited England and the Nether- 

 lands, and returned to Paris in 1552, just as his 

 father was on the point of setting out for Geneva. 

 He perhaps accompanied him thither; but, in 1554, 

 he was in Paris again, where, in consequence of the 

 privilege granted to his father by Francis I., he 

 applied for permission to establish a press. The 

 same year he again visited Italy, to collate the 

 manuscripts of Xenophon and Diogenes Laertius ; 

 and, at the beginning of 1557, he commenced the 

 publication, from his own press in Paris, of some 

 of the works which he had procured with so much 

 labour and care. He would, however, have been 

 unable to meet the expense, had he not been assisted 

 by Ulrich Fugger, out of gratitude to whom he 

 called himself, till the death of his patron, Fugger's 

 printer. The death of his father, in 1559, filled 

 him with grief; but his marriage roused' him to 

 fresh exertions. In consequence of his attachment 

 to the new doctrines, his peace was often disturbed, 

 and his labours interrupted. In 1566, he repub- 

 lished Valla's Latin translation of Herodotus, with 

 a preface, in which he defended the father of history 

 from the reproach of credulity. Robert Stephens 

 had already begun to collect materials for a Greek 

 dictionary ; Henry pursued the arduous work, and, 

 in 1572, produced his still unrivalled Thesaurus of 

 the Greek Language, which is a treasure of learning 

 and criticism, and would alone suffice to secure its 

 author permanent fame. An edition of the The- 

 saurus has lately been published in London (1816 

 26), with the additions of several philologists; 

 and new editions have recently been published 

 by Hase at Paris, and, with the additions of Din- 

 dorf, at Leipsic. The high price of this work, and 

 the abridgment published by Scapula soon after its 

 appearance, made the sale extremely slow ; and the 

 author became greatly embarrassed. He then went 

 to Germany, either for the purpose of recreation, 

 or to seek new means of support. Henry III. 

 granted him, on account of his work De la Pre- 

 cellence du Langage Francois, a reward of 3000 

 livres, and a pension of 300 livres, to enable him to 

 continue his examination of ancient manuscripts, 

 and treated him with great distinction; but this 

 money was probably never paid him. At any rate, 

 Stephens continued in embarrassed circumstances, 

 and finally retired from court, in order to occupy 

 himself more advantageously, and lived at Orleans, 

 Paris, Frankfort, Geneva, and Lyons. On a journey 

 to the latter place, he fell sick, and died in the 

 hospital, in 1598, apparently deranged. Such was 

 the end of one of the most learned and indefatigable 

 scholars, who is pre-eminent for the services which 

 he rendered to the cause of ancient literature. His 

 impressions are not so handsome as those of his 

 father, but they are equally valuable in correctness 

 and matter, and exceed them in number. His edi- 

 tions of the classics have served as the basis of the 

 text of almost all subsequent ones; and the charge 

 that he tampei ed with the text of authors arbitrarily, 



