THE 1579 GENEVA EDITION OF PLINY’S EPISTLES AND PANEGYRICUS BY HENRI ESTIENNE

This article examines the 1579 Geneva edition of Pliny the Younger’s Epistulae and Panegyricus, printed by the renowned humanist scholar-printer Henri Estienne (Henricus Stephanus). Combining the full corpus of Pliny’s letters with imperial panegyrics and Renaissance editorial scholarship, the volume reflects the intellectual ambitions of the Estienne press at its late sixteenth-century height. The present copy, later bound in luxurious red morocco with finely combed marbled endpapers, embodies the aesthetic refinement prized by eighteenth-century bibliophiles. Blending classical literature, Reformation-era printing, and Enlightenment bookcraft, this edition stands as both a scholarly monument of Renaissance Geneva and a testament to the long cultural afterlife of Pliny’s works.