{"id":2586,"date":"2018-08-25T23:35:44","date_gmt":"2018-08-25T23:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=2586"},"modified":"2026-03-13T06:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T06:48:12","slug":"michel-de-montaigne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/michel-de-montaigne\/","title":{"rendered":"Michel de Montaigne: A Detailed Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michel de Montaigne was an important\u00a0scholar and philosopher\u00a0of the French\u00a0Renaissance.\u00a0 Today he is best known as a\u00a0Renaissance Humanist\u00a0who developed the essay as a form of communication. Montaigne\u2019s writings emphasized skepticism, self-reflection, and the complexity of human behavior. This made him a foundational figure in modern thought, and an important scholar from the Renaissance<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE – EARLY LIFE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Michel de Montaigne was born on February 28th, 1533 on his family\u2019s estate near Bordeaux, France.  He was born to a wealthy family as his great-grandfather had established a fortune as a herring merchant.  Michel\u2019s father, Pierre Eyquem, had worked as a French soldier and served as mayor of Bordeaux for a period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michel de Montaigne was educated from an early age in the ideals of Renaissance Humanism<\/a>.\u00a0 This included learning the language of Latin, which hi father hoped to make his son\u2019s primary language.\u00a0 For instance, Michel\u2019s father supposedly hired only staff at the family estate that could speak Latin and instructed them to speak to Michel in Latin only.\u00a0 This includes a tutor that was hired to teach Michel as a young boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE – ESSAY FORMAT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1539, Michel de Montaigne was sent to study Latin at a boarding school in Bordeaux, France.  Soon after, in 1546, he studied law at the University of Toulouse and after completing his studies began a career in the legal profession.  In the years that followed, he began to develop his famous Essais (Essays).  First published in 1580, the book covers a wide range of topics in Michel de Montaigne\u2019s famous essay format.  Many of the works included in the book date from between 1570 and 1580, with later editions containing writings by Montaigne up until 1592 with his death.  His essays were exploratory journeys in which he works through logical steps to bring skepticism to what is being discussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE – RENAISSANCE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since, Montaigne is today remembered for his role in the Renaissance it is important to understand the basic history of this famous historical event.\u00a0 The Renaissance is an important event in European history that stretched from the 14th century to the 17th century.\u00a0 It was preceded by the\u00a0Middle Ages<\/a>\u00a0in Europe and eventually led to the major events of the\u00a0Age of Enlightenment<\/a>.\u00a0 In historical terms the Renaissance is important because it led to a major shift in European thought and worldview.\u00a0 The most significant changes that emerged as a result of the Renaissance can be seen in European architecture, art, literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, politics, religion and science.\u00a0 Intellectual thought in these fields flourished during the timeframe of the Renaissance and led to many people questioning long held beliefs about each.\u00a0 This created an environment of discovery and curiosity in which new ideas were constantly being introduced and tested.\u00a0 One such new idea or worldview that developed during the time of the Renaissance was called humanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the main features of the Renaissance was the rediscovery by European thinkers of ancient Greek and Roman ideas and texts.\u00a0 For example, the term \u2018renaissance\u2019 in French means \u2018rebirth\u2019.\u00a0 This is in relation to the idea that the intellectual culture of the Renaissance was sparked by the rediscovery of these ancient philosophies and ideas which had largely been ignored in Europe throughout the Middle Ages.\u00a0 Many of these ancient texts were preserved by Islamic and Jewish cultures in the Middle East and were not rediscovered by Europeans until the time of the Renaissance.\u00a0 More specifically, famous Italian Renaissance scholar and humanist Petrarch<\/a> is remembered for rediscovering the earlier work of Roman philosopher Cicero.\u00a0 Later scholars such as Montaigne are credited with helping to spread the humanist ideas out of the Italian peninsula and into northern Europe.\u00a0 His famous Essais helped to do this as they created a form from which humanist ideas could be structured and spread to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Petrarch\"
Photo of a statue of Petrarch on the Uffizi Palace, in Florence, Italy. (Creative Commons CC 4.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

In general, Renaissance Humanism was the study of ancient Greek and Roman texts with the goal of promoting new norms and values in society.  These norms and views varied from those at the time because they focused less heavily on a religious worldview.  Instead, Renaissance humanists such as Montaigne used ancient texts to promote a worldview based on logic and reason.  As well, Renaissance humanists promoted the idea that citizens should be educated in these topics in order to allow them to participate in the social and political life of their society.  This was a fundamental shift from the feudalistic and religious life that was the reality for most people in the Europe in the Middle Ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Renaissance
‘Six Tuscan Poets’ by Giorgio Vasari. (1544) Depicts six famous Medieval and Renaissance writers, including: Cristoforo Landino, Marsilio Ficino, Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante Alighieri, and Guido Cavalcanti.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE – DEATH AND SIGNIFICANCE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Montaigne died at the age of 59 on September 13th, 1592 on his family\u2019s estate, where he was born.  He had a profound influence on writers that followed him, including: Francis Bacon, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Friedrich Nietzsche, and even William Shakespeare.  Born in France, Montaigne used his essay writing style to question ideas in a logical manner and promoted the notion of self-awareness.  This focus on logic and questioning made him an influential humanist in France during the Renaissance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michel de Montaigne is best remembered as a writer, scholar and humanist from the timeframe of the Renaissance. This article details the life and significance of Michel de Montaigne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":35,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,100],"tags":[18,15,82],"class_list":["post-2586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-renaissance","category-biography","tag-biography","tag-history","tag-renaissance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2586"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6475,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586\/revisions\/6475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}