Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne was born on the 28th of February 1533 at the family estate, Chateau de Montaigne, in the Guyenne region of France. He would go on to invent something most of us take for granted: the essay. Not the five-paragraph school exercise, but the form itself - a writer sitting down and thinking aloud on the page, using their own life as the raw material.
His most famous question was also the simplest: "What do I know?" In Middle French, "Que sçay-je?" Those three words became the motto of a philosophical stance - Pyrrhonism, a radical openness to doubt - that he spent decades living out in print.
During his own lifetime, Montaigne was known primarily as a politician and magistrate. His contemporaries found his habit of digressing into personal anecdotes a flaw of style, not a method. His declaration that "I am myself the matter of my book" struck them as mere vanity. It would take generations for the world to catch up to what he was actually doing.
What drew him into that tower library? What friendship broke him open enough to begin? And how did a man who distrusted doctors, loved conversation above nearly everything, and served two terms as mayor of Bordeaux end up reshaping how writers across centuries thought about the self? Those are the questions this documentary sets out to answer.
Pierre Eyquem, Seigneur of Montaigne and eventually mayor of Bordeaux, raised his son according to a plan so unusual that it reads today more like a philosophical experiment than a childhood. Before Michel could speak, his father sent him to live for three years in a small cottage with a peasant family, so that he would, in the elder Montaigne's words, be drawn "close to the people, and to the life conditions of the people, who need our help."
When Michel returned to the chateau, Latin was made his first language by design. His tutor, a German doctor named Horstanus who spoke no French, conducted all instruction in Latin. Every servant in the household was required to address the boy only in Latin. His mother, father, and the staff around him adopted whatever Latin words the child used - so that in learning from the boy, they also learned the language alongside him.
Greek came differently. Rather than textbooks, it arrived through games, conversation, and solitary meditation - a method that favored internalization over rote drilling.
An epinettier, a player of a type of zither, served as a constant companion to Montaigne and his tutor. A musician woke him every morning by playing an instrument. The house was, by deliberate arrangement, a place where learning was never entirely separable from pleasure.
Around 1539, Montaigne was sent to the College of Guienne in Bordeaux, then considered the finest Latin institution of the era and directed by the scholar George Buchanan. Montaigne mastered the full curriculum by age thirteen. He finished that first phase of study in 1546 and moved into law, though what exactly he did between 1546 and 1557 remains largely unknown - his alma mater from that period included.
Etienne de La Boetie was twenty-eight years old and already formidable when Montaigne, then twenty-five, encountered him at the Parliament of Bordeaux. La Boetie had been orphaned young, was married, and had been trusted by his colleagues with sensitive political missions - including the pacification of Guyenne during the unrest of 1561. He was, by every measure, more settled and more seasoned than Montaigne.
His best-known work, the Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, would become politically radioactive in a way neither man could have anticipated. Montaigne had initially planned to include it in the Essays, but held back when Protestant circles began reading the work as an attack on the Catholic monarchy.
Montaigne described their bond as something that occurs "once every three centuries." His account of why he loved La Boetie became perhaps the most quoted passage he ever wrote: "If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because it was he, because it was I." That phrase appeared in the posthumous 1595 edition known as the Bordeaux Copy. Montaigne had written it into the margins of his personal 1588 edition - first "because it was he," then, in different ink, "because it was I."
La Boetie died in 1563, likely of plague or tuberculosis, at thirty-two. Over three days of agony, he displayed, in Montaigne's telling, a strength of soul that left a permanent mark. Montaigne first set that account down in a letter to his father, then published it in 1571 as a postface to La Boetie's collected works.
The grief was not quiet. "There is no action or thought in which I do not miss him," Montaigne wrote. "I was already so habituated and accustomed to being second everywhere, that it seems to me I am no longer whole." Donald M. Frame, introducing his translation of the Complete Essays, argued that the Essais themselves began as a substitute for that lost dialogue - that the reader, in some sense, took the place of the dead friend.
By 1570, Montaigne had inherited the family estate and the title that came with it: Lord of Montaigne. That same year, a riding accident on the chateau grounds nearly killed him. One of his mounted companions collided with him at full speed, throwing him from his horse and knocking him unconscious. Recovery took weeks or months. The episode, by his own account, changed him.
Within a year of the accident, he had given up his magistracy in Bordeaux, watched his first child die a few months after birth, and withdrawn entirely from public life to the tower of the chateau - the space he called his "citadel." His library there held roughly 1,500 volumes.
On the last day of February 1571, his thirty-eighth birthday, he had an inscription placed on the crown of the bookshelves in his work chamber. It read, in part: "Michael de Montaigne, long weary of the servitude of the court and of public employments, while still entire, retired to the bosom of the learned virgins, where in calm and freedom from all cares he will spend what little remains of his life, now more than half run out."
From that tower, over nearly ten years of self-imposed seclusion, the Essais took shape. They were first published in 1580. His stated goal was complete frankness in describing human beings - and especially himself. He wrote about his poor memory, his distaste for passionate love, his belief that humans cannot attain true certainty, and his disgust at the religious violence tearing France apart.
The longest essay in the collection, the Apology for Raymond Sebond, traced back to his first major writing project: a translation of the Catalan monk Raymond Sebond's Theologia naturalis, which his father had asked him to undertake and which he published a year after Pierre Eyquem's death in 1568. By 1595, Sebond's Prologue had been placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum - the Church's list of forbidden books - for declaring that the Bible is not the sole source of revealed truth.
In 1578, Montaigne began suffering from kidney stones, an affliction he had inherited from his father's family. He avoided doctors and drugs throughout the illness, and from 1580 to 1581 he traveled across France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy, partly in search of relief, establishing himself at Bagni di Lucca in Italy to take the mineral springs.
The journey was not purely medical. He made a pilgrimage to the Holy House of Loreto, where he donated a silver relief depicting himself, his wife, and their daughter kneeling before the Madonna. He kept a detailed journal of the trip, recording regional customs, personal observations, and even the dimensions of the kidney stones he succeeded in expelling. That journal sat undiscovered until nearly two centuries after his death, when it was found in a trunk in his tower and published in 1774.
In Rome, his Essais were examined by Sisto Fabri, who served as Master of the Sacred Palace under Pope Gregory XIII. On the 20th of March 1581, the text was returned to Montaigne with notes on passages that needed revision. Montaigne had already apologized for his favorable references to the pagan concept of fortuna, for writing kindly about Julian the Apostate, and for praising heretical poets. He was released to follow his own conscience in deciding what changes to make.
While still in the city of Lucca, Montaigne learned he had been elected mayor of Bordeaux - the same office his father had held. He returned and served two terms, the second ending in 1585. The bubonic plague broke out in Bordeaux near the close of that second term. In 1586, between the plague and the ongoing Wars of Religion, he left the chateau for two years.
When King Henry III was assassinated in 1589, Montaigne worked to support Henry of Navarre as his successor, despite his own Catholic faith and his aversion to the Reformation's cause. This placed him among the politiques - the faction that put national unity and royal authority above religious allegiance.
Three of Montaigne's essays - "On the Education of Children," "On Pedantry," and "On Experience" - set out a theory of learning that cut directly against the standard practices of his time. Most schooling then centered on reading classical texts and memorizing received truths. Montaigne found fault with both the content and the method.
His central argument was that students must make knowledge their own rather than receive it on authority. He compared good learning to how bees work: "The bees plunder the flowers here and there, but afterward they make of them honey, which is all and purely their own, and no longer thyme and marjoram." A student who merely follows another's reasoning, he wrote, "finds nothing; indeed he seeks nothing."
The essay "On the Education of Children" was dedicated to Diana of Foix. In it, Montaigne insisted that a good tutor should speak second, not first - that dialogue should allow the student to present their thinking before being corrected. Crucially, he argued that a student who admits an error is demonstrating judgment and sincerity, not weakness: "to change his mind and correct himself, to give up a bad position at the height of his ardor are rare, strong, and philosophical qualities."
Experience, travel, and human interaction were for Montaigne the true curriculum. Without them, he argued, students would grow into passive adults - uncritically obedient, unable to think independently, retaining nothing of lasting value. The tutor's job was to kindle natural curiosity, not suppress it.
His views on psychology extended well beyond education. He wrote about thought, motivation, fear, and happiness, and he placed marriage in the category of social necessities rather than romantic ideals - necessary for raising children, but incompatible, in his view, with the passionate attachment that undermines freedom.
Francis Bacon's Essays, first published in 1597 - more than a decade after Montaigne's collection appeared - are generally taken to reflect the direct influence of Montaigne, who Bacon himself cited alongside classical sources in later work.
Since Edward Capell first raised the idea in 1780, scholars have traced Montaigne's influence on William Shakespeare. The key link was John Florio's English translation of the Essais, published in 1603. A scene in The Tempest, scholars have noted, follows the wording of Florio's translation of Montaigne's essay "Of Cannibals" so closely that, in one assessment, "his indebtedness is unmistakable."
Blaise Pascal listed Montaigne and Epictetus as the two philosophers he knew best. Much of the scepticism in Pascal's Pensees has traditionally been traced to his reading of Montaigne. Ralph Waldo Emerson devoted one of his Representative Men lectures to "Montaigne; or, the Skeptic" - a series that also included Shakespeare and Plato. Of reading Montaigne, Emerson wrote that "It seemed to me as if I had myself written the book, in some former life, so sincerely it spoke to my thought and experience."
Friedrich Nietzsche judged that "That such a man wrote has truly augmented the joy of living on this Earth." The critic Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve advised reading a page of Montaigne every evening to restore "lucidity and proportion" to one's judgments. The 20th-century critic Erich Auerbach named Montaigne the first modern man, writing in his book Mimesis that Montaigne had "the clearest conception of the problem of man's self-orientation" among all his contemporaries.
Montaigne died on the 13th of September 1592, at fifty-nine, from a peritonsillar abscess at the Chateau de Montaigne. The disease brought about paralysis of the tongue - a cruel fate for a man who had written that conversation was "the most fruitful and natural play of the mind" and that he would sooner lose his sight than his hearing and voice. He requested a Mass and died during its celebration. His remains were eventually moved to the church of Saint Antoine in Bordeaux, a building that no longer exists.
On the 20th of November 2019, the Musee d'Aquitaine announced that human remains found in its basement the previous year might belong to Montaigne. DNA analysis, bone study, and facial reconstructions point strongly toward that identification - though final confirmation awaits DNA from living descendants.
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Common questions
What is Michel de Montaigne best known for?
Michel de Montaigne is best known for popularising the essay as a literary genre through his collection the Essais, first published in 1580. He is also renowned for his sceptical motto "What do I know?" ("Que sais-je?") and for his influence on writers including Francis Bacon, William Shakespeare, and Blaise Pascal.
When and where was Michel de Montaigne born?
Michel de Montaigne was born on the 28th of February 1533 at the Chateau de Montaigne in the Guyenne region of France, near Bordeaux, in a town now called Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne.
What was Montaigne's philosophical stance?
Montaigne adopted Pyrrhonism, a philosophy of radical scepticism that holds that humans are unable to attain true certainty. His longest essay, the Apology for Raymond Sebond, marks his formal embrace of this position and contains his famous motto "What do I know?"
Who was Etienne de La Boetie and why was he important to Montaigne?
Etienne de La Boetie was a humanist poet and jurist who served in the Parliament of Bordeaux. Montaigne met him at age twenty-five and considered their friendship exceptional, describing it as something that occurs "once every three centuries." La Boetie died in 1563 at thirty-two, and scholars have argued that grief over this loss was the primary motivation for Montaigne beginning the Essais.
What were Montaigne's views on education?
Montaigne argued against rote memorisation and the uncritical acceptance of authority, insisting that students must make knowledge their own through experience, dialogue, and travel. His essays "On the Education of Children" and "On Experience" set out a method in which tutors follow the student's pace and encourage curiosity rather than obedience. These ideas continue to influence modern educational practice.
Did Montaigne influence William Shakespeare?
Scholars have argued since Edward Capell raised the idea in 1780 that Shakespeare was influenced by Montaigne. The connection runs through John Florio's English translation of the Essais, published in 1603. A scene in Shakespeare's The Tempest follows Florio's translation of Montaigne's essay "Of Cannibals" so closely that one scholar described the indebtedness as "unmistakable."
All sources
40 references cited across the entry
- 1encyclopediaMichel de MontaigneMarc Foglia et al. — 18 August 2004
- 3webZeitschrift für Französische Sprache und LiteraturEmil Winkler — 1942
- 4encyclopediaMontaigne, Michel deDenise R Goitein — The Gale Group — 2008
- 5bookThe History of Scepticism: From Savonarola to BayleRichard H Popkin — Oxford University Press, USA — 20 March 2003
- 6bookInquisition: The Reign of FearToby Green — Macmillan — 2009
- 7bookHow to Live – or – A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an AnswerSarah Bakewell — Vintage — 2010
- 8bookThe Essays of Michel Eyquem de MontaigneEncyclopædia Britannica — 1952
- 10bookThe Autobiography of Michel de MontaigneMarvin Lowenthal et al. — Nonpareil Books — 1999
- 11magazineMe, Myself, And IJane Kramer — 31 August 2009
- 12webMontaigne the essayist. A biographyBayle St. John — Chapman and Hall — 16 March 2019
- 13webLéonor de Montaigne – MONLOE : MONtaigne à L'ŒuvreLauranne Bertr — 27 February 2015
- 14journalMontaigne and la Boétie in the Chapter on FriendshipHarry Kurz — June 1950
- 15bookHow to Live – or – A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an AnswerSarah Bakewell — Vintage — 2010
- 16bookThe Oxford Handbook of MontaignePhilippe Desan — Oxford University Press — 2016
- 17bookThe Wars of Religion in EuropeAdolphus Ward et al. — Perennial Press — 2016
- 18bookMontaigne et la coutumeGuillaume Cazeaux — Mimésis — 2015
- 20bookThe Oxford Handbook of MontaignePhilippe Desan — 2016
- 21webTiti Lucretii Cari De rerum natura libri sex (Montaigne.1.4.4)Cambridge Digital Library
- 22webMontainge, Apology for Raymond Sebond: Happiness and the Poverty of ReasonBruce Silver — 2002
- 23bookThe Western CanonHarold Bloom — Riverhead Books — 1995
- 24bookHow to Live – or – A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an AnswerSarah Bakewell — Vintage — 2010
- 26bookThe Complete Essays of MontaigneMichel de Montaigne — The Great Books Foundation — 1966
- 27bookThe Complete Essays of MontaigneMichel de Montaigne — Stanford University Press — 1965
- 28bookMontaigneHugo Friedrich et al. — University of California Press — 1991
- 29bookThe Classical Heritage in FranceAlain Billault — BRILL — 2002
- 30journalHow Great Was Shakespeare's Debt to Montaigne?Alice Harmon — 1942
- 31journalShakespeare and Montaigne: A Tendency of ThoughtT. Olivier — 1980
- 32bookIntroduction to Pascal's EssaysThomas Stearns Eliot — E.P. Dutton and Co. — 1958
- 33bookBlaise Pascal Thoughts, Letters, and Minor WorksCosimo — 2007
- 34bookGerman writers and politics 1918–1939MacMillan — 1992
- 35bookSuspended JudgmentsJohn Cowper Powys — G.A. Shaw — 1916
- 36bookOrdinary VicesJudith N. Shklar — Harvard University Press — 1984
- 37webFrench museum has 'probably' found remains of philosopher Michel de Montaigne21 November 2019
- 38web'Mystery' endures in France over Montaigne tomb: archaeologist18 September 2020
- 39webA Bordeaux, une incroyable enquête archéologique tente de percer les secrets du tombeau de Michel de MontaigneAnne Elizabeth Philibert — 18 September 2023
- 40webBordeaux's humanist universitybrigoulet#utilisateurs — 27 February 2019