1533-1592
Essayist

Beginnings. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was born near Bordeaux, France, in February 1533. His father was a soldier, lawyer, landowner, merchant, and, later, mayor of Bordeaux. His mother stemmed from a wealthy Spanish- Portuguese Jewish family that had fled to southern France to avoid religious persecution. As a boy, Michel's education was completely overseen by his father, who permitted his son to read and converse only in Latin until the age of six. At that age Michel was enrolled at the College de Guyenne in Bordeaux; this school was a leading center of mid-sixteenth- century French humanism. Between the age of sixteen and twenty Montaigne attended the University of Toulouse, one of the foremost hubs of French humanism and an institution noted for championing heterodox religious ideas.

Noble Savages. Well-educated as a humanist, Montaigne assumed a legal post in Perigueux in 1554. His father...