ench printers of the Renaissance the family
founded by Henri Estienne the elder. His first book, a Latin translation
of Aristotle's Ethica, appeared in 1504. From that date for nearly a
hundred years the house of Stephanus and his descendants led the
publishing business in France. Both in the artistic advancement of the
art of printing and in the intellectual advancement of French thought by
their selection of the works to be issued they earned a right to the
enduring gratitude of mankind.

Henri Estienne, the founder of the house, who died in 1520, had
published during these sixteen years at least one hundred separate
works. Although they were mostly Latin, many of them revealed Estienne's
knowledge of and devotion to the new Greek studies, and this tendency on
his part was at once suspected as heretical by the orthodox doctors of
the Sorbonne. The favor of King Francis was not at all times sufficient
to protect him from persecution, and an increasing severity of
censorship arose, the full force of which began to be evident in the
time of his son Robert.

After Henri's death his business was for a time carried on by his
widow's second husband, Simon Colines, a scholar and humanist of
brilliant attainments. Both while at the head of the house of Stephanus
and later when he had withdrawn from that in favor of Robert Estienne
his stepson and set up a separate publishing business, Colines added
much to the prestige of French printing. He caused Greek fonts to be
cast, not inferior to those of the Venetian printers, and began to
publish the Greek classics in beautiful editions. It was Colines, rather
than either the elder or the younger Estienne, who elevated the artistic
side of French printing by engaging the services of such famous
typographical experts as Geofroy Tory, and adding to his books
illustrations of the highest excellence, as well as decorative initials
and borders. Indeed it may be said that after the death of Aldus
supremacy in the fine art of book-making gradually passed from Venice to
Paris.

[Illustration]

The greatest of the Estiennes was Robert, son of Henri Estienne and
stepson of Colines, who was in control of the house from 1524 to his
death in 1559. The very first book he published was an edition of the
Latin Testament. Although following in the main the Vulgate or official
Bible of the Roman Church, he introduced certain corrections based on
his knowledge of the Greek text. This marke