Henrici Stephani Epistola, qua ad multas multorum amicorum respondet, de suae typographiae statu, nominatimque de suo Thesauro linguae graecae. In posteriore autem ejus parte, quam misera sit hoc tempore veterum scriptorum conditio, in quorundam typographorum prela incidentium, exponit. Index librorum qui ex officina ejusdem Henrici Stephani hactenus prodierunt

HENRI ESTIENNE

As for those who inquire which books my workshop has produced so far, the index of my books, which I send with this letter, will provide an answer for them. To those asking about the state of my printing house, I do not see what I should answer other than that, as in bad (that is, adverse) circumstances, it is good: conversely, as in good (that is, prosperous) circumstances, it is bad. For just as my printing house is not cold at this time, so too is it far from burning, especially if its heat is to be measured by the heat of the desire with which I am truly, hereditarily, inflamed to promote the respublica literaria republic of letters. For while I satisfy everyone else with study, care, and diligence regarding matters very useful to good letters, I by no means satisfy myself. Instead, I say daily, complaining like that Terentian old man, "I am sorry for how much work I do." Yet, by hastening slowly, I have finally brought the writings of Plutarch and simultaneously the Thesaurus of the Greek language (which are the principal books among those I now have under the press) to the point where I hope to apply the final hand to the edition of both shortly. I come to those more curious ones who also ask me about future labors. I will satisfy their desire on the condition that, once they have been informed by me about the labors to which I am first applying myself, and which I have long been pondering in my mind, they in turn inform me, at the earliest possible time, of all the help they believe they can provide me for them. Therefore, I declare that I have decided to add the works of Strabo to the other monuments of historians edited partly by my father and partly by myself. Although old codices provide not a few aids for their more corrected edition, I do not deny that more is desired by me. Furthermore, since many poets have already been produced from my workshop, I am thinking of printing also Athenaeus and Stobaeus, who contain so many, so elegant, and so many fragments of many poets. I have certainly decided to take care that whatever exists among any other authors should be collected. Perhaps even a Greek commentary would impel me to print Aristophanes, in which I believe many things can be reconciled and thus rendered far more useful. But before I begin the edition of any philosopher, I have decided to edit the books of Diogenes Laertius on the lives and sects of the philosophers, for whom I have so many corrections that not many more should be desired, and perhaps they cannot even be found. I also hope that Lucian will be edited by me, a writer not as corrupted as most others, yet still corrupted; but from whose reading greater utility can be perceived than the common crowd believes. Furthermore, of the grammatical writings of our time, I have long had the intention of bringing to the press the Commentaries on the Greek Language of Budé (various places of which have been examined by me) and the Adagia Chiliades of Erasmus, with my own annotations, which are much more expanded. Although I have listed the Greek writers first, perhaps their edition will be later than the edition of these three Latin ones: M. Tullius Cicero, Titus Livius, and Plinius, to which I have decided to add Aulus Gellius and also Macrobius. Now, as for my own writings, the book on the origins of errors, which I also promised long ago, I will finally allow to come to light at some point. Finally, the works labored upon and edited by my father, whose editions I desire to renew (but with that enrichment and recognition which would have been expected from him himself, if God had extended his life), are these two primarily: the Thesaurus of the Latin Language and the Latin-Greek-French Dictionary, in which not only Greek words will be added to Latin ones, but also many ways of speaking, matching Greek to Latin.