ESTIENNE or ETIENNE (latinized to Stephanus), a French family of scholars and printers.
The founder of the house was HENRI ESTIENNE (d. 1520), of a noble family of Provence, who came to Paris in 1502, and set up a printing establishment at the top of the rue Saint-Jean de Beauvais. He died in 1520, and, his three sons being minors, the business was carried on by his foreman, Simon de Colines, who in 1521 married his widow.