De Philosophia

1543

De Beer Fb 1543 C

[Paris]: Ex officina Roberti Stephani typographi regij

In 1470, the Rector of the Sorbonne invited three German printers to set up a printing press at the University and produce student textbooks. This was fifteen years after Gutenberg printed his famous Bible. Following in his father’s footsteps, the Parisian Robert I Estienne (1503–1559; known as Robertus Stephanus) took up printing. In 1539, he became ‘typographer Royal’, having produced many fine works, especially those by the Church Fathers and classical writers. In fact, the reign of François I (1515-1547) is called the ‘Golden Age of French typography’. In 1550, Estienne fled to Geneva, and was the first to divide the chapters of the Bible into numbered verses. This less than elegant Cicero is one of his small format Parisian productions.