Stephanus pagination

Stephanus pagination is a fancy way of saying that someone named Henri Estienne (who was also known as Stephanus) came up with a system for numbering the pages in ancient books. Basically, Stephanus realized that these old books didn't have page numbers like the ones we have today, and that made it hard for people to find specific parts of the book. So, he decided to create a system where certain parts of the book would get their own special numbers.

In Stephanus' system, each book would be divided into different sections based on the content, and each section would have its own special number. For example, if you were reading a book about history, the section about the Roman Empire might be numbered differently from the section about Ancient Greece.

The really cool thing about Stephanus' system is that it's still used today! When you see a book that has little numbers in the margins, or references to page numbers that look like this - "p. 123f." - that's probably Stephanus pagination at work. So, if you ever need to find a specific page in an ancient book, just look for the little numbers in the margin and you'll know exactly where to go!