SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
439
his own testimony, it appears that he was resi- dent in Florence, in the year 1547, and probably in 1553; and at Venice in 155tt. Maittaire supposes he must have renewed his visits to Italy twice or thrice. In 1550, he visited Eng- land, and was honoured with the notice of Edward VI. who then reigned. It was his lot often to have access to royalty. He had inter- views with Ferdinand and Maximilian, with Edward VI. and other sovereigns. But by no French monarch was he admitted to such familiarity as Henry III. He left England in 1551, with an intention of returning through Flanders and Brabant. His intercourse in Flan- ders and England, with persons of the Spanish nation, procured him an mitiatory acquaintance with the Spanish language, which he afterwards eagerly and successfully improved by a diligent perusal of the best writers. On his return to Paris, at the close of the year 1551, it may be presumed that he found his father preparing to leave his native country. Maittaire imagines, though as he confesses, on no certain grounds, that Henry Stephens accompanied his father on his removal from Paris to Geneva. But if that really was the case, he soon returned, and estab- lished a printing office at Paris. We have no evidence that he found himself in any respect involved in the obloquy or disgrace of his £ither's clandestine retirement; or of any oppo- sition experienced by him from the Sorbonue, or from any other quarter, either from his own account, or as resulting from the continuance of that enmity which had been exercised towards his parent. True it is, indeed, that he was not advanced to the dignity of " typographus regius;" but in the exercise of the typographic profession it can scarce be imagined that be experienced any impediment, forasmuch as we find him printing under the protection of a royal "privi- legium," or licence, which he gave to the first work published in his name. In 1554, and in the twenty-sixth year of his age, he gave to the public, from his own press, Anacreon, Gr. Lat. 4to. the earliest, and one of the most finished and beautiful of all his impressions. It is executed in the larger royal Greek characters; having u Greek episUe of four pages, two Latin epigrams, and a Greek Anacreontic, by Henry, prefixed. To the work are added some fragments of Al- Cisus, and of Sappho. At the close of this year he again visited Rome, probably embracing the same opportunity of paying his respects to his father at Geneva. From Rome he directed his course to Naples, where, by his skill in the Latin language, he was enabled to manage a political intrigue. In the same year he returned to Paris, and actively resumed his typographic labours on his own account, producing various impressions; to the titles of which he subscribed, " Ex officina Henrici Stephani Paruietuit lypo- ffraphi ;" but seldom imitated his father's prac- tice of subjoining any note of the month, or day ; whence it becomes difficult to ascertain the precise order of their succession. This, how- ever cannot be a matter of importance.
Of those works relating to Cicero, of which Henry was the author, and which in 1557 he gave from his own press, Maittaire says: "he constructed his Lexicon Cicemnianum Grieco- Latinwm ; in which he brought together what- ever Cicero had from philosophers, historians, poets, and prose writers, either interpreted or imitated : and to this lexicon he speedily added his own 'castigationes in plurimos Ciceronis locos,' pardy from his own conjectures, and parUy from an ancient and very accurate manu- script ; subjoining specimens of the errors, and stating the causes of them : and moreover freely animadverting upon certain over scrupulous worshippers of Cicero, who carried their super- stitious veneration so far, as to be tenacious even of the blunders of stupid scribes, and drowsy typographers. The Lexicon Ciceronianum, either lor its extraordinary merit or excessive rarity, has usually been estimated by modern booksellers at a high price.
In 1558 he assumed the appellation of Typo- graphtu illtutrit viri Huldrici Fuggeri, already noticed at page 385 ante.
About 1560, he fonned a matrimonial connex- ion with a woman whose ancestry he describes to have been noble, and of her mental excellen- cies, her temper, and domestic qualities and virtues, he speaks in the highest strain of praises. Who this extraordinary lady was, it is not satisfactorily known. Maittaire, on the authority of Isaac Casaubon, inclines to believe that she was of the family of the Greek pro- fessor, Henry Scrimger. The death of this lady happened, According to Niceron, about the end of 15(i5; but according to Maittaire, in 1568. The children of the marriage who sur- vived, were Paul Stephens, who afterwards established himself at Geneva, and two daugh- ters, Florence and Deaise. Upon the authority of a letter of Paul Melissus, it has been sup- posed that Henry formed a second matrimonial connexion at a much later period.
In 1569, be published two works, namely, Artis Typograpkica Qummonia, and the Epittola de sua typograpkim tlalu. The former of these is introduced by a prefatory address to the reader; in which our printer complains, in very indignant terms, that the noble typographic art had fallen into tiie hands of the most illiterate ; of persons "qvilmt nihil cum muiit commune «f, who had no claim even to the lowest attain- ments of literature. What, he exclaims, would Aldus Manutius say, if he conld return to life again, on beholding such a degradation of the art ? or what would be the language of Marcus Musurus and of James I.iascaris, those eminent restorers of Greek literature? Then, after ad- ducing various instances of the gross ignorance and correspoiidmt obstinacy of some printers and editors of his time, exemplified by their adulteration of particular passages of classical authors, Henry commences the poetical part of this tract, composed in Latin elegiacs. The other tract, namely, Epittola de hub typographic ttatu, is of a more elaborate and
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