CHAPTER 11 Henri II Estienne’s Conciones siue orationes ex Graecis Latinisque historicis excerptae

M. Violeta Pérez Custodio

1 ’s Collection of Greek and Latin Speeches in the Context of His Editorial Production

Speeches, that is, orations excerpted from Greek and Latin historians. To those excerpted from Greek, a Latin translation has been added, sometimes new, some- times already published, but now finally revised in many passages. Arguments intended to be of great help to the reader have been placed before all orations. A most skillfully wrought and useful index has been added, which associates every single speech with a rhetorical genre, like a classification by common places. This is the full title of the anthology of speeches excerpted from Greek and Latin his- toriography, which was edited and printed in folio in Geneva in 1570 by Henri II Estienne (Henricus Stephanus),1 a member of the French printing dynasty considered the equivalent of the Italian Aldus. The title page was printed with a variety of neat typefaces and embellished with the printer’s mark commonly used by the Estienne family (an olive tree with some falling branches and the words Noli altum sapere, “Don’t be high-minded”).2 Below it, the year of

1 Conciones siue orationes ex Graecis Latinisque historicis excerptae. Quae ex Graecis excerp- tae sunt, interpretationem Latinam adiunctam habent, nonnullae nouam, aliae iam antea vulgatam, sed nunc demum plerisque in locis recognitam. Argumenta singulis praefixa sunt, lectori adiumenta magno futura. Additus est index artificiosissimus et utilissimus, quo in rhetorica causarum genera, uelut in communes locos, singulae conciones rediguntur. For Henri Estienne’s biography and bibliography, see van Almelooven (1683) 59–119 and 34–63, Maittaire (1709) 195–503, Michaud (1843) 112–115, Feugère (1853), Dupont (1854) 55–68, Didot (1856) 516–553, Pattison (1889) 89–23, Clément (1899), Schreiber (1988a), Kecskméti, Boudou and Cazes (2003), and Boudou (2007) 9–17. The book is mentioned in numerous catalogs and bibliographical studies. Some of these are: Almelooven (1683) 45, Maittaire (1709) 350– 351, Renouard (1837) 132, Chaix, Dufour and Moeckly (1966) 74, Adams (1967) 308, Schreiber (1982) 154, Kecskméti, Boudou and Cazes (2003) 264–268, and Brown, Hankins and Kaster (2003) 149–150. 2 The motto warns against intellectual arrogance. Schreiber (1982) 247–263 and Cazes (2008b).

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/9789004341869_013 214 Pérez Custodio publication and the name of the printer were indicated, although not the loca- tion of the printing house.3 When this collection of orations came off the presses, Henri Estienne was already an experienced editor and printer. In 1559, he set up his own print- ing business in Geneva when he took charge of the printers that he inherited from his father, Robert I, who had established his business there in 1551 after leaving following a major confrontation with the Sorbonne theologians.4 Henri’s tireless work until his death in 1598 produced an impressive number of books, mainly dealing with classical texts, but also with other subjects, such as Reformation theology, biblical texts, or the French language.5 The prelimi- naries that generally accompany them provide us with valuable information about his life and his scholarly and printing activity.6 His large production of volumes about Greco-Roman literature included numerous editions and translations of Greek texts, editions of Latin texts and a major lexicography project, the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (1572), upon which he lavished a great deal of time and effort in order to emulate his father’s Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, but which burdened him with debt.7 Although Henri Estienne was an accomplished scholar in both classical lan- guages, he mainly focused his interest on Greek culture. This passion, fostered from childhood, accompanied him throughout his life, as the large number of Greek authors published demonstrates: Anacreon, Moschus, Bion, Theocritus, , Aristotle, Athenagoras, Xenophon, , Hesiod, Homer, Euripides, and Thucydides are only part of a long list, with historians featur- ing prominently.8 On the other hand, the number and variety of Latin texts, including Cicero, , Varro, Pliny the Younger, , Macrobius, , and ancient Latin poets, is much shorter. In order to provide readers with such a wide variety of classical authors, Henri Estienne often chose to publish anthologies, a common trend in his time. During his long career he prepared and printed collections of Greek poetry, Latin poetry, medical subjects, sententiae and apothegms, philosophy, oratory,

3 According to existing information, the year printed on the title page of the preserved copies is always 1570, except for one item in Magdalen College Library D.14.7, Oxford, which is dated 1571, although the last two figures of the number seem to have been altered by hand. 4 Armstrong (1954) 200–259. 5 Jeune (1994). 6 Kecskméti, Boudou, and Cazes (2003). 7 Kecskméti, Boudou, and Cazes (2003) xxi–xxviii. 8 Jehasse (1988). Critics have focused their attention mainly on Estienne’s production concern- ing Herodotus. See, for example, Boudou (2000), Boudou (2001), and Boudou (2003).