Books and their makers during the Middle Ages

IT is not necessary for the purpose of this study to give the record in detail of the careers and publishing undertakings of all the printers of the great family of the Estiennes. I have been interested in presenting with some fulness the account of the life and work of Robert, because he stands out as the most distinctive and forcible member of a famous literary family, and because his experience illustrates very fairly the characteristic features and the chief difficulties of the business of publishing books in France in the first half of the sixteenth century. The business careers of the brothers and of the descendants of Robert should be mentioned, however, if only to indicate the exceptional position occupied by this noteworthy family in the history of printing and publishing, and the extent of the influence exercised by it through successive generations upon the production of scholarly literature.

Robert’s elder brother, Francis, was a libraire juré of the University of Paris. His publications were comprised within the ten years from 1537 to 1547. He used as a mark a tripos which stands upon a closed book and from which issues a vine shoot. The motto is Plus olei quam vini. This is sometimes followed by the adage, which seems rather a truism than a truth, πάντων δυσχερέστατον τὸ πᾶσιν ἀρέσκειν, “Of all things, the most difficult is to please everybody.”[23] With the exception of one Psalterium and a Horæ Virginis in Greek, his few impressions were all in Latin, and were chiefly issues of the classics. He appears never to have come into conflict with the divines whose censorship gave so much trouble to his brother Robert.

Charles Estienne, who was the youngest of the three brothers, was known as a printer and publisher in Paris between the years 1550 and 1560. He had originally adopted the profession of medicine and attained high reputation as a physician and naturalist, and as a classical and antiquarian scholar. While travelling in Italy, he became intimate with Paul Manutius, the son of Aldus. He was a voluminous author, and the first productions of his Press were the work of his own pen, and comprised a treatise on Dissection, a series of volumes on Horticulture, issued under the title of Prædium Rusticum, a work on Birds, and one on Fishes. He also wrote a history of the Dukes of Milan, a description of the Rivers of France, and a number of narratives of travel. Finally, he produced a number of critical works, such as a Dictionarium Latino-Gallicum.

This was published in 1552, and again in 1561, and remained for many years a scholarly authority on its subject, and was honoured by being largely “appropriated.” Cooper’s Thesaurus Linguæ Romanæ, published in London in 1565, was said by Dr. White Kennett to be a verbatim transcript of Stephen’s Dictionary.[24] It seems evident from the above brief summary that Charles Estienne secured an honourable position as a scholar and as an author.

In order to indicate the direction of his publishing interests, I select a few of the more important of the titles from his catalogue.

• 1554. “Compendium Michlol, authore Rodolpho Bayno Cantabrigiense, et sanctæ linguæ professore Regio Lutetiæ Parisior.” 4to. The author was an Englishman from York, who had accepted a professorship at Paris.
• “Institutiones Linguæ Syriacæ, Assyriacæ atque Thalmudicæ una cum Æthiopicæ atque Arabicæ collatione, Angelo Caninio Anglarensi, authore.” 4to.
• 1555. “Ciceronis Opera omnia.” 4 vols. Folio.
• 1558. “Petri Bunelli familiares aliquot epistolæ in adolescentulorum, Ciceronis studiosorum gratiam.”
• Petrus Bunellus was a native of Toulouse, who had studied in Italy, where he had for four years lived with Paul Manutius. He had evidently shared the interest of his friend and host in the writings of Cicero.
• 1559. “Plutarque de la honte vicieuse, par Fr. le Grand.” 8vo.
• “Histoire du siège de Metz en 1552, par Barthélemy de Salignac.”
• “Traicté de la guerre de Malte, par de Villegagnon.” 4to.
• “Missives de B. de Salignac, contenant le voyage du Roy Henry II. aux Pays-Bas.” 4to.
• “De Latinis et Græcis nominibus arborum fruticum, herbarum, piscium et avium liber; ex Aristotele, Theophrasto, Galeno,” etc. This is described as an original and learned work.

The famous scholar Scaliger charges Charles Estienne with vanity and irritability of temper, but a publisher may be angry occasionally without any permanent imputation upon his morals or character. Scaliger had, by a breach of promise and by ill usage, given to Estienne just cause of offence. He had promised to place with Estienne the publication for France of all his works, while he afterwards committed to Vascosan and others such of them as seemed most likely to prove profitable undertakings. To Charles Estienne he offered those which on account of their special character promised neither popularity nor advantage. Under these circumstances, Estienne returned Scaliger’s manuscripts with an expression of indignation.[25]

Robert Estienne the second was the eldest son of Robert Estienne the first, and had been brought up in the business of his more famous father. He did not accompany the latter on his removal to Geneva, having refused to abandon the Catholic faith. His remaining in Paris brought to him certain business advantages, as he was put in charge of the royal printing-office. As a further mark of confidence, and possibly as special consideration for his fidelity to the Catholic faith after the rest of his family had gone over to the heretics, Charles IX. further honoured him with a royal commission to travel in Italy in search of manuscripts and rare books for use in the publishing undertakings of the Royal Press, and appointed a provision for his family during his absence. In 1563, Robert received the formal appointment as Typographus Regius, and by that date he appears to have fully reconstituted his father’s establishment in Paris. He numbered among his friends and clients some of the principal scholars of the age, including Joseph Scaliger, George Buchanan, Sir Thomas Smith, and others, and appears to have fully maintained the family reputation for scholarly attainments and for devotion to higher literature.

Among his more important publications may be cited:

• 1565. “Josephi Scaligeri conjectanea in Varronem de Lingua Latina.”
• 1566. “Georgii Buchanani Scoti Psalmorum Davidis Paraphrasis poetica.”
• “Psalmi Aliquot a Theodoro Beza versi.”
• 1568. “De recta et emendata linguæ Græcæ pronounciatione Thomæ Smith. Angli, tunc in Acad. Cantabr. publici prælectoris, ad Vintoniensem episcopum Epistola.” 4to.
• “De recta et emendata linguæ Anglicæ scriptione Dialogus, Thoma Smitho equestris ordinis Anglo authore.” 4to.

Scaliger, while an Italian by race and a Frenchman by birth, is more usually associated with Holland, where he passed the greater part of his working years. As professor of belles-lettres in Leyden, he had among his pupils the celebrated Grotius. He was himself possibly the most noted of the group of Protestant scholars whose learning and attainments secured for the Reformers of the time an intellectual superiority over their Catholic opponents, a superiority which had as one result a decided revival of letters within the Church of Rome. The original editions of his books were issued in Leyden, but he was able, as noted above, to arrange for the publication in Paris of authorised editions from which he derived a profit, and of certain of these works editions appeared also in Basel.

George Buchanan, poet and historian, is best known in connection with his service as tutor for Mary Queen of Scots, and later, as preceptor for her son James. The latter was possibly largely indebted to Buchanan for his interest and proficiency in classical studies. Sir Thomas Smith was the English Ambassador at Paris. The interest of scholarly foreigners such as those named, in securing for their books the imprint of Estienne, indicates that the repute of the firm had already extended beyond the limits of France.

Henry Estienne the second, second son of Robert, carried on in Geneva, after the death of his father, what may be called the Protestant branch of the publishing concern, for a few years, when he returned to Paris and established there a second Estienne Press. He was apparently the most finished scholar of his scholarly family, and from an early age, before he had entered upon business responsibilities, we find him engaged in work as editor and translator. His father had taken special pains with his education, and as a part of his general training had caused him to travel as a young man in Italy, England, and the Low Countries.

Henry had secured a familiarity with Latin in his home circle, where, as before stated, Latin was practically the language of the household. He took his first instruction in Greek from Petrus Danesius, one of the Greek scholars who had been brought to the royal college of Francis I. He spent nearly four years in travel and in sojourn in Italy, busying himself while there in collecting and collating manuscripts for his father’s Press. Maittaire states that he collated for this purpose no fewer than fifteen manuscripts of Æschylus. Certain annotations made by him in his transcript of Athenæus were subsequently utilised by his son-in-law, the famous scholar Casaubon, in the edition printed forty years later.

In Venice he became acquainted with the Greek scholar Muretus, who, in addition to his work in the University of Padua, had for a number of years given editorial assistance in the Greek division of the Aldine Press. In Henry’s diary of his journey, he speaks of being present at a gathering in Rome of literati and poets, who ignorantly condemned Hebrew ut linguam asperam et horridam. The young publisher who was well versed in Hebrew, successfully defended the sacred language and resolutely vindicated the cause both of David and his interpreters.

A little later, he met, in Florence, Petrus Victorius, one of the most profound Greek scholars at that time in Italy. Henry was able to present to his host a valuable Codex of Anacreon which the Greek professor had not before been acquainted with. In 1550, Henry’s travels extended to England, where he was introduced, as a scholar of note, to King Edward VI. From England, he went to Flanders and became intimate with some of the scholars of Louvain. While in Flanders, he devoted himself to mastering the Spanish language, and he brought back with him from Antwerp to Paris the texts of certain Spanish classics of which he printed French versions. In the twenty-sixth year of his age, he returned to Paris to begin his active business career, for which he had certainly taken pains thoroughly to equip himself.

He began his publishing undertakings in 1554, with an edition of Anacreon, beautifully printed in quarto. The volume contains, in addition to the Greek text, Latin versions of the Odes prepared by the publisher who himself acted as editor. During 1555, he was again in Italy collecting and collating manuscripts. In 1556, he issued an edition of the Psalms presented in a Latin version which was the combined work of George Buchanan a Scotchman, M. A. Flaminius an Italian, Solomon Macrinus a Frenchman, and Helius Eobanus a German. He was this year busily engaged, in company with other scholars, in editorial work on the Thesaurus Græcus.

In 1557, he produced editions of Æschylus, Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Athenagoras. The notes to Æschylus were the work of the scholar Petrus Victorius, with whom Henry had a long-time friendship. In this year was also issued the Lexicon Ciceronianum Græco-Latinum, which had been compiled by himself and in which he had brought together whatever passages or material Cicero had utilised from philosophers, historians, poets, or essayists. This work secured for its compiler and publisher high repute as a scholar of wide attainments.

In 1558, Henry assumed the appellation of a Typographus illustris viri Huldrici Fuggeri, Domini in Kirchberg et Weyssenhorn.[26] Huldric Fugger was a native of Augsburg, born in 1526, and belonging to a family conspicuous for its antiquity, its mercantile ability, and its wealth. Huldric was himself a scholar, and became an eminent patron of literary men. He expended very great sums in the purchase of trustworthy manuscripts of ancient authors, and in having produced from these satisfactory printed editions. Henry Scrimger, a Scotch professor of considerable erudition, was engaged by him, on terms described as magnificent, to carry into effect those literary undertakings. Scrimger was an old friend of Henry Estienne, and it was undoubtedly at his instance that the baron conceived the plan of appointing Henry as his typographus. The printer received from Fugger for some years a pension of fifty gold crowns, but I have been unable to find any specification of the precise nature of the services which were given in consideration of this payment.

Expenditure for the promotion of literature was still very exceptional, and it is perhaps not surprising that the family of Huldric considered his patronage of letters as evidence of a deranged mind. They instituted a legal process, and succeeded in inducing the court to take their view of Huldric’s actions. They secured a decree which caused him to be declared incapable of the administration of his own property, and he was for a time placed under guardians. Eventually, however, he recovered possession of his property, and in fact succeeded also to the estate of his brother. With increased resources, he resumed his interest in collecting books, and at his death, in Heidelberg, in 1584, he bequeathed to the Palatinate a very fine library. It is probable, however, that his confinement had tended to mitigate his ardour for expending money in printing books, and his relations with Estienne were not resumed. The several experiences endured by this would-be German Mæcenas may have helped to discourage future similar attempts to further the production of good literature. If the expenditure of money in the production of books and the collection of libraries were to be accepted as evidences of mental derangement, it is not surprising that the printers and publishers of Germany secured during the sixteenth century very little patronage or compensation from the nobility of the land.

Huldric Fugger was, however, not the only one of his family who interested himself in literature. His elder brother, Joannes Jacobus, had a fine collection of books both printed and in manuscript, and was proficient in Greek. Other members of the family were in relations with Paul Manutius in Italy, with Koberger of Nuremberg, and with Froben of Basel.

The first book printed by Henry Estienne under his new designation of Huldrici Fuggeri Typographus, was an edition of the Edicts of Justinian, printed in Greek and Latin, which bears date 1558. In 1559, he issued the Bibliotheca of Diodorus, with annotations of his own, and in 1561, a very elaborate edition of the complete writings of Xenophon.

After the death, in 1559, of Henry II. and in 1560, of the young King Francis II., there was for a number of years, during the minority of Charles IX., a time of trouble and disturbance for France, during which literary undertakings and business enterprises were of necessity seriously interfered with. The Calvinists, who had been rapidly increasing in numbers throughout the kingdom, were making an earnest fight for consistent toleration, and, later, for official recognition and for equality with the Catholics before the law, a contention which was actively opposed by the Guises, and (with occasional pretensions of concession) by the Queen-Mother, Catharine of Medici. The result was a series of civil wars, with only occasional brief interludes of truce and quiet.

In 1562, Estienne completed the publication of certain theological works which had been left unfinished in Geneva at the time of his father’s death,—an Exposition of the New Testament and an Exposition of the Psalms.

The editor, a certain Marloratus, a Huguenot minister at Rouen, was unfortunately, before the printing was completed, hanged as a heretic, under the direction of the Duke of Guise, but the books themselves were not suppressed nor was the publisher interfered with. In fact, the Faculty of the Sorbonne appears for the time to have suspended its censorious watchfulness over heretical publications, perhaps because it found its hands sufficiently full with the active work of suppressing by fire, gibbet, and sword the heretics themselves.

Henry Estienne had, as stated, established his printing-office in Paris, where his business may be considered as in a measure a continuation of the concern of his father Robert, although the post of printer to the King had, as we have noted, been given to his uncle. Henry continued, however, to print a certain portion of his books in Geneva, although it is not clear whether or not he retained the control of, or even an ownership in, the Press which had been established there by his father.[27] He appears at this time to have divided his publishing undertakings, executing at Paris reprints of the classics and of works in general literature, and reserving for the Geneva Press theological works which were likely to give offence in a period of “religious irritation.” This term is, I may mention, Maittaire’s, and it is perhaps not too strong a description of a period in which a divine who had taken no part in politics could be hanged simply for editing a Protestant commentary.

I add some further selections of certain of the more important of the titles from Henry’s Catalogue.

• 1563. “Rudimenta Fidei Christianæ; addita est ecclesiasticarum precum formula; Græc. Lat.” 12mo.
• This is Calvin’s Catechism, translated into Greek by Henry himself.
• “De abusu linguæ Græcæ in quibusdem vocibus, quas Latina usurpat admonitio.” 8vo. Of this treatise Henry was author as well as publisher.
• 1564. “Fragmenta Pœtarum Veterum Latinorum, quorum opera non extant, Ennii, Accii, Lucilii” etc. This work was undertaken out of regard for the memory of his father, by whom the fragments had been collected, but who had not been able to complete the preparation of them for the press.
• 1566. “La confirmation de la discipline ecclésiastique observée dans les églises réformées du royaume de France; avec la résponse aux objections proposées à l’encontre.” This was printed in Geneva.

In the same year, was issued a Greek Anthology to which the publisher added certain annotations of his own. By way of exciting the emulation of young poets, Henry promised an addition of such Greek epigrams as had been turned into Latin metre by himself and others, and as a proof of his own facility, he introduced into his annotations to the Anthology above mentioned more than fifty translations of a single distich.

The publisher, in thus assuming responsibilities as an author, could, of course, not escape the criticism of other authors claiming authority in the same studies. Vavasseur, for instance, says of Henry’s literary productions: “His verse is more faulty than his prose, his numbers are harsh and unpolished, his muse is often triflingly diffuse. He is fluent in writing, but frequently not correct. He is both fastidious and dictatorial, talking freely of others and much of himself, and forgetting the modesty which becomes the author.”[28] It is fair to remember that Father Vavasseur was a Jesuit and was possibly, therefore, no dispassionate judge of the defects of the scholarly but heretical publisher.

• 1566. “Herodoti Historiæ Libri IX. et de vita Homeri Libellus, Latine. Folio.”
• This edition comprises also the Opuscula of Herodotus, Plutarch, and Porphyrius, relating to Homer’s life and poesy.

M. de Sallengre relates that Henry Estienne, having printed at a great expense the histories of Herodotus, his enemies and above all the monks, who sought every occasion to bring trouble upon him, decried his history as filled with fables et de contes à dormir debout, and that Henry, to repel the effect of this accusation, undertook to justify himself by the composition of the following treatise, Apologia pro Herodoto, sive Herodoti Historia fabulositatis accusata.

This Apologia is described by Greswell as a serious performance, containing nothing that should be particularly offensive to the monks or to the Roman clergy, unless it be an incidental mention of La papesse Jeanne and a description of certain superstitions that Estienne had observed in his visit to the Church of our Lady of Loretto.

The Apologia was, later, prefixed to another issue of a Latin version of Herodotus and was subsequently printed in French in a separate volume under the title L’apologie pour Hérodote.[29]

The Apologia appears to have been amplified and extended and to have been made the vehicle of a severe attack upon the Roman Hierarchy and a means of exposing the ignorance and vices of its ecclesiastics, the fooleries of their pulpit elocution, the astonishing credulity of the laity instructed by them, and the laxity of discipline and deterioration of manners which seemed to be the inevitable result of a corrupt faith. Greswell is of opinion that the motives which led to this attack are not to be sought for in any imaginary affront which Henry had experienced through the monkish accusations against his Herodotus, but that they were rather to be found in the irritation occasioned by the persecutions from which his family had suffered and in his rooted antipathy to the principles of the Church of Rome.[30]

Maittaire’s description of Henry’s criticism of the manners and works of the monks recalls certain portions of the Encomium Moriæ of Erasmus. The author’s general line of argument is as follows: The circumstances related by Herodotus in his History ought not to be pronounced fables on account of their seeming want of verisimilitude, as in recent times many things have happened which, though in themselves apparently far less probable than much that Herodotus has recorded, cannot be called in question. It is contended further that it is impossible for men ever to have been so stupid and so gross as Herodotus describes them; but Henry shows by undeniable examples how excessive in all respects was the grossness of many of those who lived in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, persons who were probably no less degraded than were the classes whose lives are recorded by Herodotus. In the account of the wrong-doings and degradation of later generations, Henry does not spare the monks, who are attacked without mercy, and he speaks with hardly more reserve of the popes themselves. It is difficult to understand why divines of the Sorbonne, whose theological ire had been so bitter against Robert Estienne on account of Greek annotations to the Testament, should have allowed to pass, apparently without a protest, so sweeping a denunciation of the character of the ecclesiastics.

According to De Sallengre, the Apologia was a book which everyone wished to possess. It was read with avidity, and editions of it were multiplied. The first three, all printed in Geneva, were issued before the close of the year 1566. The fourth, fifth, and sixth were printed at Antwerp in 1567, 1568, and 1569. The seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth were printed at Rochelle (the centre of French Protestantism) between 1572 and 1582, and the eleventh and twelfth at Lyons in 1592 and 1607. These editions were all superseded by that printed at The Hague in 1735, with notes by M. le Duchat.

An anonymous translation appeared in London in 1607, under the title of A World of Wonders, or an Introduction to a treatise touching the conformitie of ancient and modern wonders; or a Preparative Treatise to the Apologie for Herodotus, the argument of which is taken from the Apologie for Herodotus written by Henry Stephen, etc. I have thought it worth while to present the specification of the editions of a book which achieved, if not fame, at least popularity, as an indication of the activity of the printing-presses even during a period of political strife and of widely extended wars.

The book appears never to have been put into print in Paris, as it was doubtless not considered wise to test too severely the censorship of the University. According to De Sallengre, copies were, however, in very general circulation in Paris society, which was always ready to be amused with the recital of clerical enormities and with pictures of the scandals of private life.

The years 1562 and 1563 were signalised by active operations in the continued strife between the Protestants and the Catholics, and while, after 1563, there was a brief cessation of hostilities, the civil war broke out again in 1567 and continued with brief intervals until the Massacre of S. Bartholomew in 1572. In each one of these years of disturbance, however, we find Henry Estienne’s imprint associated with important publications, principally reissues of the classics, although it is not easy to understand how it could have proved practicable to secure any continued sale at this time in France for costly editions, or how there was in fact any opportunity of interesting the public or of bringing adequately to the attention of the public, books of any class. The frequent interference with the communications between Paris and the cities east of the Rhine must also have rendered it very difficult to arrange for the distribution of French editions in Germany, or in the Low Countries, while the latter were themselves in the throes of the great rebellion against the dominion of Spain.

In 1568, Henry printed Henrici Stephani annotationes in Sophoclem et Euripidem, etc., which is evidence that such little matters as the battles of St. Denis and Jarnac were not permitted to interfere with his classical studies any more than with the work of his printing-office. In the next year, he issued another work from his own pen: Comicorum Græcorum sententiæ, id est Gnomæ, Græce Latinis versibus ab H. Stephano redditæ, et annotationibus illustratæ. He also completed the publication of a collection of Latin historians. The list of the year includes a number of other titles of which the most important (with reference at least to the personality of Henry) were the two following:

• Artis Typographicæ querimonia et Epitaphia typographorum quorundam, per H. Stephanum. 4to; and
• Henrici Stephani epistola de suæ typographiæ statu; Index librorum qui ex ejusdem officina hætenus prodierunt. 8vo.

The former is a lament concerning the degradation of the noble art of typography. An art which had, as he complains, fallen into the hands of the most illiterate of persons, quibus nihil cum musis commune est. “What,” he exclaims, “would Aldus Manutius say if, returning to life, he could behold the present miserable condition of the art to which his life was devoted!” He then proceeds to adduce various instances of the gross ignorance and corresponding obstinacy of some of the printers and editors of his time, exemplified by their adulteration of particular passages of classic authors. These quotations are followed by a number of Latin Elegiacs and certain Epitaphia, partly in Greek and partly in Latin, which appear to have been included in the volume as evidence that one printer at least, was both a classical scholar and a man of literary capacity. It is doubtful whether the condition of printing throughout Europe at this time afforded any substantial justification for this sweeping complaint of Henry’s. The presses of Plantin were, during these very years, active in Antwerp, although Plantin, like Estienne himself, was contending against manifold difficulties in the task of carrying on an international publishing business in the midst of civil war and political disintegration; and the books produced by Plantin will, not only for the beauty of their typography, but especially for the perfection of the magnificent copper-plate illustrations utilised for many of them, stand favourable comparison with the productions of earlier or later generations. The books issued in Nuremberg during the same decade, by the second of the Kobergers, who had built up the greatest publishing concern that Germany had ever known, can also be specified as excellent examples as well of scholarly editing as of tasteful and accurate typography. It was doubtless the case that in Paris as elsewhere, there were, during the last half of the sixteenth century, examples of scholarly and ignorant editing and of careless and inaccurate typography, but the same may be said of every century since the time of Gutenberg. Henry Estienne’s essay may, I think, be considered partly as an affectation and partly as a piece of self-conceit.

The second of these monographs presents a description of the status of his Press, together with an Index librorum or classified catalogue of his publications. It forms in fact the chief authority for the history of his business. A considerable portion of the Epistola is devoted to a description of the purpose and character of the great Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, then in course of production. Henry takes pains to explain that the plan and inception of the Thesaurus were due to his father Robert, who had in fact, before his death, collected a large amount of material for the great etymological and lexicographical undertaking, which may be considered, therefore, as the work of two generations of scholarly publishers. Greswell is in accord with Maittaire in describing the work as an “admirable and unrivalled monument of ardent zeal for the advancement of learning, and as an example of unwearied diligence and of colossal erudition.”[31]

The remainder of the Epistola is devoted to a recital of the injuries done to the authors of classical antiquity by ignorant and careless editors and by credulous printers, ready to accept on the authority of such editors new readings and unfounded “emendations” in the text. Henry announces that he has in preparation a treatise to be entitled De Origine Mendorum in authoribus Graecis et Latinis, but Greswell can find no evidence that this was ever published.

The Epistola closes with a humorous complaint of the trivial and harassing interruptions to which a scholarly publisher is exposed at the Frankfort Fair and elsewhere, on the part of applicants for information concerning his publishing undertakings and plans. The complaint is printed in Latin iambics. I quote some of the lines as Englished by Greswell. It will be noted that the Index librorum or catalogue of Estienne had been printed for the purpose of answering such inquiries in print. Aldus had, it may be remembered, been driven to a similar course in 1498, but catalogues were still the exception rather than the rule.

Henry’s complaints concerning futile and troublesome correspondence might, of course, be repeated in many a publishing office to-day, but the modern publisher is helped out of the difficulty to some extent by his stenographers and typewriters. It remains a marvel how it was possible, without any time-saving appliances, for the publishers of the fifteenth century to conduct a complicated business, to give personal labour to preparing for the press works calling for original scholarship and detailed labour, and to carry on, in autographic letters, literary and theological correspondence.

The Epistola gives the titles or descriptions of a number of important works which the ambitious publisher had in plan, a list, in fact, too long to be completed within the lifetime or to be feasible for the resources of any one publisher, and only a portion of which were ever brought to completion. In 1571, Henry issued, among other works, an edition of the works of Plutarch, which gives both the Greek and the Latin text, in thirteen volumes octavo. In 1572, he completed the great Thesaurus, the most important production of his busy life. The full title is as follows:

Thesaurus Græcæ Linguæ, ab Henrico Stephano constructus, in quo præter alia plurima quæ primus præstitit (paternæ diligentiæ æmulus) vocabula in certas classes distribuit, multiplici derivatorum serie ad primigenia, tanquam ad radices unde pullulant, revocata. Thesaurus Lectori.

Anno MDLXXII. excudebat Henr. Stephanus, cum privilegio Caes. Majestatis et Christianiss. Galliarum Regis. 4 vols. Folio, with two supplementary volumes containing an appendix and an index.

A seventh volume, issued a year later, adds two glossaries, and a treatise on the dialects of Attica. This Thesaurus Græcus was completed by Henry at about the same age as that at which his father, Robert, had published his Latin Thesaurus. The two works would have been for any generation of publishers creditable examples of scholarly and public-spirited enterprise, but when we remember that the publishers were the compilers, and were also the authors of the notes, commentaries, and separate treatises which make up a large portion of the bulk of the volumes, and that their work as editors and authors was done amidst the engrossing cares of the management in stormy times of a complex and absorbing business, the Thesauri remain magnificent monuments to the scholarship, the capacity, and the persistent energy of the two Estiennes.

The Thesaurus Græcus was inscribed by Henry to the Emperor Maximilian, Charles IX. of France, Elizabeth of England, and John George, Marquis of Brandenburg. He secured for it, in addition to the privilege of the French King, which bears date 1561, that of the Emperor, issued in 1570. In one of the several prefatory words Henry tells his readers that the only way in which he had found it practicable to complete his task, was to bind himself to produce each twenty-four hours, in readiness for the compositors who had been detailed for the work, a stated quantity of written matter. The interruptions were often, he says, so frequent that he was obliged to lay aside the pen ten times in an hour; but there were few days on which the “copy” that he had pledged himself to complete was not in readiness at the hour fixed.

Henry makes a special appeal to scholars and to the public generally to protect his great work against any piratical appropriations, or any attempts on the part of epitomisers or abridgers. The appeal proved, however, ineffective, and the Thesaurus Græcus was utilised as a convenient quarry by a number of later lexicographers. Greswell makes special mention of Joannes Scapula as the first of the plagiarists who took advantage of the labours of Henry. He states that Scapula had been employed as one of Henry’s correctors, a position which gave him convenient facilities for an early appropriation of the sheets of Henry’s lexicon. The Lexicon Græco-Latinum, which bears the name of Scapula, was printed in Basel in 1579. In his introduction, he speaks of having had the plan of the undertaking long in mind, and of having, in fact, made considerable progress in his work before Henry’s volumes were printed. He does not admit the appropriation, or even the use of any of Henry’s material, although, as Maittaire points out, whole pages of the Basel lexicon are substantially identical with those of the Paris work.

The lexicon of Scapula being in smaller and less costly form, was found of convenience to students generally, but the scholars of Henry’s generation did not hesitate to censure severely the conduct of Scapula and to make strong condemnations of his literary dishonesty. Maittaire quotes Malinkrot to this effect, and records also that the celebrated Dr. Busby, of Westminster School, actually forbade his pupils, on the ground of indignation at literary larceny, to use what he called “the surreptitious lexicon” of Scapula. The instance is worth commemorating, because it marks a distinct advance in the development of popular, or at least of scholarly, opinion in regard to the rights of literary producers. There had been not a few examples in previous generations of indignation on the part of authors or editors concerning the appropriation of their own works, indignation which was, to be sure, chiefly concerned not with the diminution of the author’s proceeds, but with the risk or certainty that the surreptitious editions would be garbled and inaccurate, and would thus cause injustice to the reputation of the author. I do not, however, find previous record of instances in which scholars or readers not personally associated with the author, had taken pains, simply on the ground of literary ethics, to discountenance or discourage surreptitious or piratical editions.

It remains to add concerning the Thesaurus, that, in common with not a few other public-spirited publishing undertakings, it brought to its author-publisher loss instead of profits. Henry complains that the publication involved him in serious pecuniary difficulties. La Caille is authority for the statement that these difficulties and the honour brought upon France by Henry’s publications were made the ground of a donation, in 1578, by King Henry III. of three thousand livres. Maittaire is, however, clear in his mind that while the King had talked about such a compensation, and may even have promised it, the money was never paid. The instance appears in several respects to be parallel with that of the big Bible of Plantin, in connection with the publication of which Plantin received from Philip II. promises many, but no cash. A second edition was printed in 1572, the sale of which may have helped to lessen the publisher’s loss. This was, however, the year of the massacre of S. Bartholomew and of the battles of Brissac and Moncontour, and it is probable that the business of selling books could hardly have been in a satisfactory condition.

In 1574, Estienne printed an edition of Apollonius Rhodius, and, in 1575, a work of his own composition entitled Pseudo-Cicero Dialogus H. Stephani, and, in the year following, a curious treatise compiled by himself, entitled H. Stephani Schediasmatum Variorum. This year also witnessed the completion of a magnificent impression of the works of Plato, the editorial work on which was done largely by himself. According to Maittaire and Fischer, hardly a single typographical error is to be found in the three volumes. The first volume is dedicated to Elizabeth, Queen of England, the second to James VI. of Scotland, and the third to the Republic of Berne.

King Henry III. showed an intelligent interest in the work of the Estienne Press, and appears to have extended to the printer not a few marks of royal favour, although, as Maittaire points out, it was the case in many instances that the gifts of money proffered by the King did not get beyond the stage of promises. In 1578, the King sent Henry into Switzerland in search of manuscripts and rare books, and in 1579, he conferred on him a general privilege, “Tant pour tous les Historiens Grecs et Latins que pour la Dictionnaire et Cours Civile.”

It is evident, from the various headings of the printer’s letters, that he was continually shifting his residence. He writes most frequently, to be sure, from Paris, but very often from Geneva, and again from Berne, Orleans, Lyons, and Frankfort. He appears to have given his personal attention, during many years, to the business of his House at the Frankfort Fair. It is sufficiently surprising that, with this migratory life, he was able to bring to a successful conclusion so many important editorial and publishing undertakings, especially as the work of the printing-office was so often interrupted by war or rumours of war.

The years 1578-1583 chronicled the production of a number of important books, chiefly editions of the classics. An edition of Herodotus, issued in 1581, the publisher dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney, with a prefatory address in which he reminds Sidney of their former literary intercourse, first in Germany and later in Austria. During 1584, Henry’s Press appears to have been idle, but the five following years show a renewed activity. The assassination of his royal patron, Henry III., in 1588, did not fail to call forth the lamentations of Estienne’s muse, but his Epitaphia on the monarch are said to evince more loyalty than poetic excellence.

The last work bearing Henry’s imprint was an edition of the Poemata Varia of Beza, which bears the date of 1579. Henry’s death came in 1598, in a hospital at Lyons. The seventy years of his active and eventful life had brought, as an offset to the well merited prestige and honours that had been accorded to him for his distinctive services, a full measure of vicissitudes and reverses. His life was full of sharp contrasts. He had intimate relations with many of the rich and great, and he found himself associated not infrequently with the splendours of courts and enjoyed the favour of more than one monarch; yet poverty was his prevailing lot, and his work was carried on under a constant struggle with difficulties and obstacles of the most serious character.

When we recall the limited extent of the circles of students and readers in France and throughout Europe who were interested in higher literature, the constant absorption of the rulers and nobles and of the active-minded citizens generally in war and in political strife to the necessary exclusion of any adequate attention to the arts of peace; and when, further, we remember the constant succession of wars, civil and foreign, in which, during the lifetime of our publisher, France was engaged, wars which must have rendered all traffic difficult and have constituted a most serious hindrance to the business of producing and of distributing books, we can but be surprised at the number and the magnitude of his literary and his business achievements, and are prepared to accord full appreciation to his courage, his patient persistence, his enormous industry, and his omnivorous scholarship. It has been possible in this article merely to touch upon some of the more noteworthy of his own productions. The mere transcription of the titles of the literary labours achieved or projected by Henry would be a considerable task; and we gather the impression that in his strength and capacity for continuous work he must have as far exceeded the average literary worker of to-day, as the heroes of old were said to have exceeded in their physical powers the men of later times. In comparing the character of Henry with that of his father Robert, Maittaire says that they evinced equal skill and zeal in their profession, but speaks of Robert as less ostentatious of his own merits, more ingenuous, and more ready to acknowledge the co-operation of others. Greswell finds evidence of an arrogance and moroseness of temper in Henry, which increased with age, and which frequently led him into violent altercations.

Florence, the eldest daughter of Henry Estienne, had married (in 1586) the famous scholar Isaac Casaubon, a son-in-law of whom a father like Henry Estienne might well have been proud. Mark Pattison, in his biography of Casaubon, suggests that the latter had probably fallen in love with the manuscript collections of the father before he began to pay his court to the daughter. It was fortunate for Casaubon that his wife proved satisfactory in herself, as the jealousy of her father prevented him from securing any benefit from the manuscript collections. After a good deal of friction, Casaubon appears to have given up the attempt to carry on scholarly work with Estienne, and, according to Pattison, he never saw the inside of Estienne’s library, notwithstanding the absence of the latter for months and even for years at a time, excepting on one memorable occasion when he and Florence summoned courage to break it open.[32]

According to Casaubon, Estienne was in fact a perfect dragon in the close keeping of his books and manuscripts. Speaking of a new book of Camerarius, Casaubon writes to Bongars, “Read it I have not; seen it I have, but it was in the hands of Henry Estienne who would not so much as allow me to touch, much less to read it, while he is every day using or abusing my books as if they were his own.”[33] Pattison goes on to point out, however, that Casaubon exaggerates the facts, when he complains that Estienne would lend him no books, as both with the Strabo and with the Athenæus, he derived material assistance from collations which Henry Estienne had made in Italy.

Casaubon contributed also to certain of the editions issued by his father-in-law, such as the Thucydides of 1588, the Latin Dionysius of the same year, the Plinius of 1591, and the Diogenes Laertius of 1593. According to his own account, he was, however, jealously excluded from all share in the text and the translation, or from any control of the contents of the volumes, and his contributions appear to have been limited to notes and commentaries.

Casaubon appears never to have secured from Estienne the payment of a certain dower, that belonged to or had been promised to his wife, while the portion of the property that finally came to Florence after the settlement of her father’s very meagre estate was but trifling and was, later, more than offset by a claim for which the estate was adjudged to be liable for the re-payment of certain moneys that had been advanced, on the security of the matrices of the famous royal font of Greek type, which had been brought by Robert Estienne from Paris.

The business of the House of Estienne was carried on after Henry’s death by his son Paul and his nephews. The publications of these Estiennes of the fourth generation were chiefly, as heretofore, in the division of Greek and Roman classics, and were of a character fairly to maintain the high scholarly standard which had been established. Robert was himself a classicist and a poet, and Maittaire speaks of his literary productions as having secured a good repute.

Antoine, the son of Paul, succeeded his father in 1620, and in 1623 was appointed Imprimeur du Roy. His son Henry succeeded in 1649 to the latter title. Henry’s work closed about 1659. He left no children, and was the last of the family who devoted himself to the work of printing and publishing, and with his death, therefore, the history of the House comes to an end.

During a term of more than a century and a half the Estiennes or Stephani had, as printers, as publishers, and as scholars filled a large place in the literary history of France and of Europe, and I find record of no other family which has contributed to the profession of publishing so many distinctive and distinguished men.