Today in 1533 Michel de Montaigne was born near Bordeaux. He was a leading philosopher, humanist, and developed the literary form that we now call an Essay.
He was an admirer of Lucretius, Virgil, Plutarch, and Socrates, and began his main work, Essays, 1571 at the age of 38, when he retired to his castle. He writes that “I want to be seen in my simple, natural and ordinary form, without containment or artifice, because I am the object of my book.” Montaigne’s project was to show himself without masks, and to show himself in the most intimate ways. He continued to work on the Essays until his death in 1592 in the castle. On the ceiling beams, he had his favorite quotes recorded. The motto in the tower was “What do I know?”
He was a critic of culture, science, and religion of his time – being a Catholic with a Protestant family at the time of major wars of religion in France. He came to believe the very idea of certainty as something unnecessary.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th-century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.
Suggested link:
5 Tudor Scholars who changed Learning in England
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop. She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.