53 Facts About Montaigne

1.

Michel Eyquem, Sieur de Montaigne, known as the Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance.

2.

Montaigne is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre.

3.

Montaigne's work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with intellectual insight.

4.

Montaigne had a direct influence on numerous Western writers; his massive volume Essais contains some of the most influential essays ever written.

5.

In time Montaigne came to be recognized as embodying, perhaps better than any other author of his time, the spirit of freely entertaining doubt that began to emerge at that time.

6.

Montaigne's education began in early childhood, and followed a pedagogical plan, that his father had developed, refined by the advice of the latter's humanist friends.

7.

The intellectual education of Montaigne was assigned to a German tutor.

8.

Montaigne's father hired only servants who could speak Latin, and they were given strict orders always to speak to the boy in Latin.

9.

Montaigne was familiarized with Greek by a pedagogical method that employed games, conversation, and exercises of solitary meditation, rather than the more traditional books.

10.

Montaigne's father had a musician wake him every morning, playing one instrument or another; and an epinettier was the constant companion to Montaigne and his tutor, playing tunes to alleviate boredom and tiredness.

11.

Around the year 1539 Montaigne was sent to study at a highly regarded boarding school in Bordeaux, the College of Guienne, then under the direction of the greatest Latin scholar of the era, George Buchanan, where he mastered the whole curriculum by his thirteenth year.

12.

Montaigne finished the first phase of his educational studies at the College of Guienne in 1546.

13.

Montaigne then began his study of law and entered a career in the local legal system.

14.

Montaigne was a counselor of the Court des Aides of Perigueux, and in 1557 he was appointed counselor of the Parlement in Bordeaux, a high court.

15.

Montaigne was awarded the highest honour of the French nobility, the collar of the Order of Saint Michael.

16.

Montaigne married Francoise de la Cassaigne in 1565, probably in an arranged marriage.

17.

Montaigne was the daughter and niece of wealthy merchants of Toulouse and Bordeaux.

18.

Montaigne wrote very little about the relationship with his wife, and little is known about their marriage.

19.

Montaigne published a posthumous edition of the works of his friend, Boetie.

20.

From 1580 to 1581 Montaigne traveled in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy, partly in search of a cure, establishing himself at Bagni di Lucca, where he took the waters.

21.

Montaigne's journey was a pilgrimage to the Holy House of Loreto, to which he presented a silver relief considering himself fortunate that it should be hung on a wall within the shrine.

22.

Montaigne kept a journal, recording regional differences and customs - and a variety of personal episodes, including the dimensions of the stones he succeeded in expelling.

23.

Montaigne had apologized for references to the pagan notion of "fortuna", as well as for writing favorably of Julian the Apostate and of heretical poets, and was released to follow his own conscience in making emendations to the text.

24.

Montaigne was re-elected in 1583 and served until 1585, again moderating between Catholics and Protestants.

25.

Montaigne continued to extend, revise, and oversee the publication of the Essais.

26.

Montaigne's position associated him with the politiques, the establishment movement that prioritised peace, national unity, and royal authority over religious allegiance.

27.

Montaigne died of quinsy at the age of 59 in 1592 at the Chateau de Montaigne.

28.

Montaigne's humanism finds expression in his Essais, a collection of a large number of short subjective essays on various topics published in 1580 that were inspired by his studies in the classics, especially by the works of Plutarch and Lucretius.

29.

Montaigne's stated goal was to describe humans, and especially himself, with utter frankness.

30.

Montaigne describes his own poor memory, his ability to solve problems and mediate conflicts without truly getting emotionally involved, his disdain for the human pursuit of lasting fame, and his attempts to detach himself from worldly things to prepare for his timely death.

31.

Montaigne writes about his disgust with the religious conflicts of his time.

32.

Montaigne believed that humans are not able to attain true certainty.

33.

Montaigne considered marriage necessary for the raising of children but disliked strong feelings of passionate love because he saw them as detrimental to freedom.

34.

Montaigne's ideas have influenced psychology and are a part of its rich history.

35.

Montaigne found fault both with what was taught and how it was taught.

36.

Much of education during Montaigne's time, focused on reading the classics and learning through books.

37.

Montaigne believed it was necessary to educate children in a variety of ways.

38.

Montaigne disagreed with the way information was being presented to students.

39.

At the foundation, Montaigne believed that the selection of a good tutor was important for the student to become well educated.

40.

Montaigne believed that a tutor should be in dialogue with the student, letting the student speak first.

41.

Montaigne argued that the student combines information already known with what is learned and forms a unique perspective on the newly learned information.

42.

Montaigne thought that tutors should encourage the natural curiosity of students and allow them to question things.

43.

Montaigne believed that a child's curiosity could serve as an important teaching tool when the child is allowed to explore the things that the child is curious about.

44.

Montaigne argued that students would become passive adults, blindly obeying and lacking the ability to think on their own.

45.

Montaigne believed that learning through experience was superior to learning through the use of books.

46.

Montaigne argued against the popular way of teaching in his day, encouraging individualized learning.

47.

Montaigne believed in the importance of experience, over book learning and memorization.

48.

Ultimately, Montaigne postulated that the point of education was to teach a student how to have a successful life by practising an active and socially interactive lifestyle.

49.

Thinkers exploring ideas similar to Montaigne include Erasmus, Thomas More, John Fisher, and Guillaume Bude, who all worked about fifty years before Montaigne.

50.

Ever since Edward Capell first made the suggestion in 1780, scholars have suggested Montaigne to be an influence on Shakespeare.

51.

The latter would have had access to John Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essais, published in English in 1603, and a scene in The Tempest "follows the wording of Florio [translating Of Cannibals] so closely that his indebtedness is unmistakable".

52.

That is what Montaigne did and that is why he is the hero of this book.

53.

The birthdate of Montaigne served as the basis to establish National Essay Day in the United States.