Fun Facts Friday: Michel de Montaigne

Michel de Montaigne (28 February, 1533 – 13 September 1592) was one of the most important philosophers of the French Renaissance. One of the things he’s known for making the essay a literary genre.

Books by Michel de Montaigne*

Fun Facts about Michel de Montaigne:

Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne was born in Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne , on a family estate called Château de Montaigne.
The Eyquem family was very rich for at least two generations before he was born. His father, Ramon Felipe Eyquem,, was a soldier and mayor of Bordeaux.
The young Michel de Montaigne started his education with a plan his father had developed. In fact, the first language he learned was Latin, as per his father’s instructions. Even the servants were hired based on their ability to speak the language and only addressed the young boy in that language. He also learned German because his tutor did not speak French. The education also consisted of studies in humanities, sciences, religion, and Greek utilizing formal classes, games, conversations, and physical exercise.
At six years old, he was sent College of Guienne,, to a very good liberal arts boarding school in Bordeaux, Eventually he studied law at the College.
The young Montaigne started his career as a civil servant, working an the Bordeaux Parliament, and a courtier at the court of Charles IX.
In 1565, Michel de Montaigne married Françoise de la Cassaigne, who also came from a rich merchant family, historians believe this was an arranged marriage. The couple had six daughters, but only one, Léonor, survived to adulthood.
The day he turned 38 years old; Michel de Montaigne resigned his job and moved his family to the Bordeaux area and started to concentrate on his writing.
The writer’s search for “Myself” a character he was looking for lasted for two decades and produced thousands of pages, calling them essai.
He traveled around Europe, starting in 1580 with traveling around France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy looking for a cure for his kidney stones – an inherited condition from his father’s family.
Throughout his career, Michel de Montaigne kept up the pretense that he wrote only for himself, even though he wrote a “best seller” by 16^th century standards and his essays were translated into English, just in time for an aspiring writer by the name of William Shakespeare to buy a copy.