Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) was a French writer and magistrate who invented the essay. In his Essais he examined himself and human nature with freedom, humour and doubt. They have been read in English since John Florio's translation of 1603.
A humanist upbringing
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was born on 28 February 1533 at the château de Montaigne, near Bordeaux, into a family of rich merchants recently ennobled. His father had him taught Latin as his first language: nobody in the house was allowed to speak to the child in anything else.
He studied at the Collège de Guyenne in Bordeaux, then law, and became a counsellor at the parlement of Bordeaux in 1557. There he met Étienne de La Boétie, whose friendship marked his life; La Boétie died in 1563.
The tower
In 1571, aged thirty-eight, Montaigne retired to his estate. In the library on the top floor of a tower, under beams painted with Latin and Greek sentences, he began to write the Essais, 'trials' of his judgement on every kind of subject.
The first two books appeared in Bordeaux in 1580. Montaigne then travelled through Germany, Switzerland and Italy, and was twice elected mayor of Bordeaux, in 1581 and 1583, in the middle of the Wars of Religion.
The Essays
An enlarged edition, with a third book, was published in 1588. Montaigne went on adding to the margins of his own copy, the 'Bordeaux copy', until his death at his château on 13 September 1592.
His essays on friendship, on cannibals, on experience and on himself influenced Shakespeare, Pascal, Descartes, Emerson and Nietzsche. In English they were read first in John Florio's translation and later in Charles Cotton's of 1685.
Anecdotes
Que sais-je?
Montaigne took as his motto the question 'Que sais-je ?' ('What do I know?') and had a medal struck with a pair of balanced scales. The question sums up the scepticism of the Essays.
Woken by music
Montaigne's father, believing that a sudden waking was bad for children, had his son woken every morning by the sound of a musical instrument.
Frequently asked questions
What does 'essai' mean?
In French, an 'essai' is a trial or attempt. Montaigne used the word for his attempts to test his judgement on any subject, and it gave the name to the genre.
Who translated Montaigne into English?
John Florio in 1603, Charles Cotton in 1685, and many others since, among them Donald Frame and M. A. Screech.
Was Montaigne a politician?
He was a magistrate at Bordeaux, twice mayor of the city, and acted as a go-between for the Catholic and Protestant parties during the Wars of Religion.