Henri Estienne was a French printer who specialised in publishing works in Greek. Born in Paris, Estienne displayed a keen interest in Classical literature and, to foster this interest, his father allowed Estienne to travel to England, Flanders and Italy to collect manuscripts of ancient works. By 1560, Estienne had inherited his father's printing business and throughout the 1560s published numerous works by Classical authors. In 1578 he published a three volume collection of the works of the philosopher Plato. Estienne created a new pagination for these volumes, whereby each page of the original Greek manuscript is divided into sections, to aid scholarly work. This method of pagination remains the standard system for referencing both the works of Plato and Plutarch.
This book is one of two volumes of Estienne's 1578 publication held by the Royal Library, it was likely acquired by Queen Victoria.