Essayist and courtier, born at Château de Montaigne, Périgord, SW France. He spoke no language but Latin until he was six, received his early education at Bordeaux, then studied law. He obtained a post in connection with the Parlement of Bordeaux, and for 13 years was a city counsellor, later becoming mayor. A translation (1569) of the Natural History of a 15th-c professor at Toulouse was his first attempt at literature, and supplied the text for his Apologie de Raymon Sebond. In 1571 he succeeded to the family estate at Montaigne, and lived the life of a country gentleman, varied by visits to Paris and a tour in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. He is remembered for his Essais (157280, 1588) on the new ideas and personalities of the time, which introduced a new literary genre to accommodate what Matthew Arnold was later to call the dialogue of the mind with itself. Quoted by Shakespeare, imitated by Bacon, and incorporated into the discourse of the novel, Montaigne's essays have provided a major contribution to literary history.
|
Western Philosophers Renaissance philosophy |
|
|---|---|
| Michel de Montaigne | |
| Name: | Michel Eyquem de Montaigne |
| Birth: | February 28, 1533 |
| Death: | September 13, 1592 |
| School/tradition: | |
| Notable ideas: | The Essay |
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (IPA pronunciation: [miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ]) (February 28, 1533 – September 13, 1592) was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. Montaigne is known for inventing the essay—he became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes and autobiography—and his massive volume Essais (translating literally as "Attempts") contains, to this day, some of the most widely influential essays ever written.
In his own time, Montaigne was admired more as a statesman than as an author. Much of modern literary non-fiction owes its genesis to Montaigne, and writers of all kinds continue to read Montaigne for his masterful balance of intellectual knowledge and personal story-telling.
Life
Montaigne was born in Périgord on the family estate Château de Montaigne, in a town now called Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne, not far from Bordeaux. Although she lived a great part of Montaigne's life near him, and even survived him, Montaigne doesn't make any mention of her in his work.
From the moment of his birth, Montaigne's education followed a pedagogical plan sketched by his father - and secured by the advice of the latter's humanist friends. Soon after his birth, Montaigne was brought to a small cottage, where he lived the first three years of life in the sole company of a peasant family, "in order to", according to the elder Montaigne, "approximate the boy to the people, and to the life conditions of the people, who need our help." An épinettier (playing a zither original to the French region of Vosges) constantly followed Montaigne and his tutor, playing a tune any time the boy became bored or tired.
| French literature |
|---|
| By category |
| French literary history |
|
Medieval |
| French Writers |
|
Chronological list |
| France Portal |
| Literature Portal This box: view • talk • edit |
Around the year 1539, he was sent to study at a prestigious boarding school in Bordeaux, the Collège de Guyenne, and afterwards he studied law in Toulouse and entered a career in the legal system. While serving at the Bordeaux Parliament, he became very close friends with the humanist writer Étienne de la Boétie whose death in 1563 deeply influenced Montaigne.
Montaigne married in 1565;
Following the petition of his father, Montaigne started to work on the first translation of the Spanish monk Raymond Sebond's Theologia naturalis, which he published a year after his father's death in 1568.
In 1571, he retired from public life to the Tower of the Château, Montaigne's so-called "citadelle", where he almost totally isolated himself from every social (and familiar) affair.
Translated into English, albeit amateurishly and poorly with help requested, this inscription means:
1571 A.D. Michel Montaigne, 38 years old, weary of long years of public service and while still vigorous, would teach the young by returning to the bosom of his ancestral home where all is quiet and free from care, and with this little effort finally overcome the censure of public life;
During this time of the Wars of Religion in France, Montaigne, himself a Roman Catholic, acted as a moderating force, respected both by the Catholic King Henry III and the Protestant Henry of Navarre.
In 1578, Montaigne, whose health had always been excellent, started suffering from painful kidney stones, a sickness he had inherited from his father's family.
Montaigne continued to extend, revise and oversee the publication of his Essays. King Henry III was assassinated in 1589, and Montaigne then helped to keep Bordeaux loyal to Henry of Navarre, who would go on to become King Henry IV.
Montaigne died in 1592 at the Château de Montaigne and was buried nearby. The Bordeaux Tourist Office says that Montaigne is buried at the Musée Aquitaine, Faculté des Lettres, Université Bordeaux 3 Michel de Montaigne, Pessac.
The humanities branch of the University of Bordeaux is named after him: Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3.
Montaigne considered marriage necessary for the raising of children, but disliked the strong feelings of passionate love as being detrimental to freedom.
Related writers and influence
Among the thinkers exploring similar ideas, one can mention Erasmus, Thomas More, and Guillaume Budé, all working about 50 years before Montaigne.
Montaigne's book of essays is one of the few books scholars can confirm Shakespeare had in his library;
Much of Blaise Pascal's skepticism in his Pensées was a result of reading Montaigne, and his influence is also seen in the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Friedrich Nietzsche was moved to judge of Montaigne: "That such a man wrote has truly augmented the joy of living on this Earth." (from "Schopenhauer as Educator")
User Comments Add a comment…