Michel de Montaigne

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Montaigne on a contemporary painting by Thomas de Leu (1560–1612)
signature
The coat of arms of Michel Eyquem de Montaigne.
The coat of arms shows gold-colored shamrocks arranged in rows on an azure blue background in a contemporary French form , in which the right front paw of a lion is inserted in the center (Essais, I, 46.)

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne [ mi'ʃɛl e'kɛm də mõ'tɛɲ ] ( Latin Michael Montanus ; born February 28, 1533 at Montaigne Castle in Périgord ; † September 13, 1592 ibid) was a lawyer, skeptic and philosopher , humanist and founder of the Essay writing . As a politician connected to the Catholic faith , he had access to the influential personalities of the French monarchy at the end of the Renaissance and at the beginning of the Reformation and the beginning of the Counter-Reformation .

Life and work

Origin and youth

Montaigne was born as Michel Eyquem at Montaigne Castle , which his great-grandfather Ramon Felipe Eyquem (1402–1478), a merchant from Bordeaux who had become rich through trading in fish, wine and indigo , had bought in 1477 along with the associated manor. Ramon Felipe was married to Isabeau de Farraygues (1428-1508) since 1444. The couple had two sons, Grimon and Perrin Eyquem, and two daughters, Pélegrina and Audeta. Ramon Felipe Eyquem also acquired the Château d'Yquem named after him on October 10, 1477 as a fiefdom of the Archbishops of Bordeaux ; the purchase price is said to have been 900 gold francs ( franc à pied ). This legacy was continued by Montaigne's grandfather Grimon Eyquem (1450-1519), jurade de Bordeaux . He was married to Jeanne du Fourn (around 1470-1519) since 1490.

Michel was the oldest of four adult children of Pierre Eyquem , a Roman Catholic French who had accompanied King Francis I on his Italian campaign and had come into contact with the ideas of the Renaissance and humanism. The father held several high offices in the city of Bordeaux: in 1530 he was appointed professor of the local regulatory system, from 1533 he was deputy mayor and from 1554 mayor. Montaigne's mother, Antoinette de Louppes de Villeneuve (1514-1603) from Toulouse , probably came from a family of Marranos (Spanish or Portuguese Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity , Alhambra Edict ), but this has not been proven beyond doubt. The historian Paul Courteault from Bordeaux, however, in his 1935 essay (in den Mélanges Laumonier) on the mother of Montaignes excludes that she continued to practice the religion. However, like other researchers, he is of the opinion that she was more inclined to the Reformation and supported two of her children in their conversion to Calvinism. Michel had three sisters named Jeanne (* 1536), Léonore (* 1552) and Marie (* 1554) and two brothers Thomas (1537–1597) and Bertrand Charles (1560–1620). The family on the mother's side - like those of the father - had become wealthy and prosperous. Antoinette de Louppes de Villeneuve brought 4,000 livres as a dowry into the marriage. His younger brother Thomas Eyquem de Montaigne married a daughter of his friend Étienne de La Boétie .

After his birth, Montaigne was given to a nurse who lived in humble circumstances in the nearby hamlet of Papessus near Montpeyroux . When he returned to his family, around three years old, his father hired a doctor from Germany named Horstanus as a private tutor who spoke neither French nor Gascon and spoke only Latin with the child . Since the parents tried to do the same and even the servants had to try, Latin almost became Montaigne's mother tongue . Later the doctor Horstanus is said to have started teaching at the Collège de Guyenne . Montaigne himself saw his upbringing as an experiment by his father, who, following the example of Erasmus of Rotterdam, pursued a humanistic upbringing with him. His first living son was supposed to be brought up “with the Latin language, artistic skills and without compulsion, to help the family gain respect and recognition”.

School, Studies (1539–1554)

From 1539 to 1546 Montaigne attended the Collège de Guyenne in Bordeaux, where his teachers feared him because he spoke Latin better than they did. The incumbent rector was André de Gouveia . Here Montaigne also learned ancient Greek . His teachers included de Gouveia, the Scottish humanist philosopher George Buchanan (1506–1582) and the historian and translator of ancient texts Élie Vinet (1509–1587). Montaigne later said that he owed the love of books that set him apart from most of the aristocrats of his day to his schooling.

Almost nothing is known about the years 1546 to 1554. Montaigne probably first completed preparatory studies at the artist faculty in Bordeaux, followed by a law degree. There is also evidence of studying in Paris (he later mentioned professors from both universities there). Roger Trinquet (1972) finds some references in the essays to early stays in Paris, and Montaigne does mention Adrianus Turnebus in Paris and André de Gouveia in Bordeaux, but not a lawyer from Toulouse during his student days. Jean Lacouture (1998) therefore concluded that he was studying in Paris and only a few stays in Toulouse due to relatives. Montaigne likely graduated with a licentiatus juris degree .

It is also unknown whether he witnessed the revolt of August 17-22, 1548 in Bordeaux in 1548, with which the city reacted to the imposition of the salt tax by the new King Henry II ; it was bloodily suppressed by royal troops and some patricians were killed. The Marshal and Connétable of France, Duc de Montmorency , restored royal authority until 1548.

Montaigne as judge adviser, in political function and important private events (1554–1571 and 1565)

In 1554, at the age of twenty-one, Montaigne was given the office of councilor, conseiller at the tax court, cour des aides , in Périgueux . In the same year he accompanied his father, who had just been elected mayor, to negotiations with the king in Paris. An uncle of Montaigne, Pierre Eyquem seigneur de Gaujac, gave him his judge's seat in Périgueux in 1556.

When the tax court of Périgueux was dissolved in 1557, Montaigne was given a judicial council post at the Parlement of Bordeaux, the supreme court of the province of Guyenne. Here he made an almost symbiotic friendship (as he saw it in retrospect) with his fellow judge Étienne de La Boétie, who was a good two years his senior, humanistically educated, and whose early death in 1563 he suffered only with difficulty and whom he mourned for a long time. He sees himself as the survivor of a friendship that only exists once in three hundred years, and he organizes "an everlasting funeral for his friend, because for him to exist means to exist under the friend's gaze."

In Bordeaux, he was primarily a representative for the Chamber of Appeals , Chambre des Enquêtes . There he examined and assessed legal cases . As an appellate judge, he did not make any judgments himself , but gave his written assessment to his fellow judges who were conducting the negotiations. In addition, he also chaired civil litigation.

In his capacity as judge adviser he traveled to Paris in 1559, 1560 and 1562. It was about the relationship with the Huguenots, which are strongly represented in the French south-west . During his last stay in Paris, which was overshadowed by the massacre of Wassy , le massacre de Wassy , at the beginning of the Huguenot Wars , Montaigne, together with other judges from various French parliaments, solemnly professed Catholicism.

On Sunday, September 23, 1565 he married Françoise de La Chassaigne , the daughter of his fellow judge Joseph de La Chassaigne (approx. 1515–1572). The only adult daughter from this marriage was Éléonore Eyquem de Montaigne (September 9, 1571 - January 23, 1616). At the death of his father, Pierre Eyquem de Montaigne , in 1568, he inherited the majority of his property according to the rules of noble inheritance. This was particularly the estate and castle of Montaigne, after which he exclusively named himself and which emphasized his status as a nobleman.

1569 he finished an annotated translation of the natural theology seu liber creaturarum , the "Book of creatures" (1434 to 1436) of from Toulouse derived Catalan theologians and physician Raimond Sebond . He had started it at his father's request. At the same time as this translation from Latin into French, Montaigne printed a collection of French and Latin poems by his friend La Boétie in Paris.

Retreat into private life (1571)

In 1571, at the age of thirty-eight, Montaigne quit his judicial office and retired to his castle. "The financial prerequisites and thus independence are given, and he can afford to give up his judicial office, since he has inherited the legacy of his father, as lord of the castle de Montaigne". On July 23, 1570, he handed over his administrative duties in Bordeaux to his friend Florimond de Raemond . One reason for his decision was probably the disappointment that his attempts to move to one of the more important and therefore more prestigious chambers of the court had failed because his father-in-law was already sitting in one of them, as a close relative, and in the other already a brother-in-law. Perhaps the fact that he became a father for the second time after a first child born the previous year, also a girl, died soon after birth, as well as four other children born in 1573, 1574, 1577 and 1583, may also play a role. all of them daughters who did not survive infancy .

" Lived enough for others now - let us at least live this last part of life for ourselves "

is his own statement about this retreat.

Tour de Montaigne Montaigne had his private library on the 2nd floor here
2nd floor: Detail from the ceiling of the library in the tower of Montaigne Castle:
three Latin quotes from the Bible, burned into the crossbeams on behalf of Montaigne
1st floor: Chamber in the tower of the Château de Montaigne
Ground floor : the oratory by de Montaigne

With the role of the country gentleman , as the Montaigne apparently saw himself after his retreat into private life, it was perfectly acceptable to read and dabble in literature. He did this with the help of a relatively extensive private library (around a thousand volumes), which was largely bequeathed to him by his friend La Boétie.

He began to write down striking sentences from the works of classical, mostly Latin authors, and to make them the starting point for his own considerations. He saw these considerations as attempts to get to the bottom of the nature of the human being and the problems of existence, especially death. He had to tentatively develop the appropriate representation for these “experiments” ( French essais ), because only later, after him and thanks to him, did the term essay become the name of a new literary genre . While writing, Montaigne describes his thoughts as if the sheet of paper in front of him were his counterpart - just as he would tell his lost friend La Boétie. Changing over time, he also encounters the text again when he rereads it. This is then corrected, completed and rejected by him from the new perspective. His thought process leads to the fact that he in turn changes himself. "For him, being a human being consists of nothing but self-determined moments, and he reproduces his empathy with his own past."

Montaigne learned the educated and poetry interested Diane d'Andouins , starting in 1583 mistress of the late French King Henry IV., Know. Both entered into an intensive correspondence, for example about the work of Pierre de Ronsard and Joachim du Bellay . He dedicated his Les 29 Sonnets de la Boétie in the Essais to Diane d'Andouins. There were also other dedications , such as Charlotte Diane de Foix-Candale the De l'institution des enfants , Louis de Madaillan d'Estissac (c. 1502–1565) the L'Apologie de Raymond Sebond and De la ressemblance des enfants aux pères dedicated to Marguerite de Grammont, widow of Jean de Durfort, Seigneur de Duras.

Presumably Montaigne had linked his move into private with the hope of spending his days undisturbed by the warlike turmoil of the times. But when the division in the country deepened after the massacres on St. Bartholomew's Night (August 22nd / 23rd, 1572) and both sides warred again, he considered it his duty to join the royal army and thus the Catholic camp. In 1574 he also advocated a reconciliation of the denominations with a speech to the judges of the Parliament in Bordeaux . After the peace treaty of 1575, which temporarily granted the Protestants full civil rights, he was appointed chamberlain by Heinrich von Navarra, the de facto ruler in large parts of western France.

The trip to Italy (1580–1581)

Since he had suffered from renal colic since 1577 (the strong effects of which on his well-being, thinking and feeling he discussed in the essays ), Montaigne went on a bathing trip in 1580, despite the war that had just broken out in France , from which he hoped to get relief. The journey took him via Paris, where he was supported by King Henry III. received in several French, Swiss and German baths.

Michel de Montaigne traveled to Italy from 1580 to 1581
Postal rates of 1563 for comparison with the route of Montaigne in 1577

He was accompanied by some servants by his brother Bertrand-Charles Eyquem de Montaigne (1560-1620) and three other nobles, namely Charles d'Estissac († 1586), Comte François du Hautoy, a nobleman from Lorraine , and probably Bernard de Cazalis, his brother-in-law and widower of the late sister Marie (* 1554). Thus the group consisted of ten travelers, seven on horseback, three men on foot, two servants and a mule driver . Because of the three companions on foot, the horses could only walk at a step , so that the daily distances were about seven to eight French miles , or about thirty kilometers.

The trip presumably led along the postal courses at that time (see the map of the situation in 1563) and also served as an educational trip . So it went via Mulhouse as well as Basel and Baden in Switzerland to Konstanz , where the group stayed in the inn "Zum Adler" and "Zum Hecht", then on October 9th 1580 they stopped at the coat of arms of Cologne in Markdorf and further on Lindau , Augsburg and Munich . The tour group's route led from Munich over the Scharnitz Pass to Seefeld , Innsbruck and Hall . Via the Brenner Pass, which now followed, the group reached Sterzing , Brixen , Klausen , Kollmann , Bozen and Salurn in Italy. From here he visited other Italian cities and city-states ( Verona , Venice , Ferrara , Florence , Siena ) as far as Rome . There he stayed for several months, was by Pope Gregory XIII. received and had the essays approved by the papal censorship . He was also given the title of Roman citizen.

1st floor: Chest on the Château de Montaigne , in the Abbé Prunis the manuscript of the Journal de voyage found

.

Montaigne described the trip in a diary, which he did not publish. The manuscript was not found in an old chest by Joseph Prunis in Montaigne Castle until 1770 , and it was printed in 1774. The first part of the Journal de voyage came from a travel companion and secretary Montaignes and may have been written down as a dictation. It was only after his stay in Rome in February 1581 that Montaigne's own records were made. Montaigne describes his way of traveling as follows:

“ If it's not nice on the right, it goes to the left; if I do not see myself able to mount my horse, I stop…. Did I forget to look at something? I turn back; so i always find my way. I don't plan a line in advance, neither the straight nor the crooked one. "

- Essais, III, 9

On the way he received the news on September 7, 1581 in Lucca that he had been unanimously elected mayor of Bordeaux for a two-year period. Only in late autumn did Montaigne travel home to the Guyenne to take up his post. On November 30, 1581, the tour group reached Montaigne Castle again.

The time as mayor in Bordeaux (1581–1585)

His predecessor in the office of mayor was Armand de Gontaut, seigneur de Biron ; he had taken on this task from 1577 to 1581. As an experienced military man, he expanded the city into a fortress to repel possible attacks by the Huguenots. With the Edict of Beaulieu of May 6, 1576, Henry III ended. the fifth Huguenot war . But the concessions negotiated there to the Reformed were not accepted by Armand de Gontaut. Ten years after Bartholomew's Night of 1572, almost ten percent of the residents of Bordeaux belonged to the Reformed Church. In this situation, Montaigne was appointed mayor in December 1581. Henry III. probably relied on Montaigne's diplomatic skill, proven several times, to moderate the constantly simmering conflicts between Catholics and Reformed people. Somewhat reluctantly, and not without having received a letter of duty from the King, Montaigne accepted the office after his return at the end of November. A short time earlier, the king had appointed Jacques II de Goÿon de Matignon as governor de Guyenne . A period of excellent political cooperation developed between the two men . After two years in office, he was re-elected in 1583, despite strong opposition from the Catholic League. Montaigne succeeded through direct negotiations in Paris, which were temporarily suspended after the uprising in Bordeaux and were extremely important for the city.

Nevertheless, displeasure about the development organized. From the corner of the radicalized Catholic League and its leader Jacques II de Merville de Pérusse des Cars († approx. 1580), Grand Sénéchal de Guyenne and commander of the Château du Hâ in the center of the city, resistance flared up steadily. Jean Ricard de Gourdon de Genouillac de Vaillac, governor of the Château Trompette and of Bordeaux (both under the protection of Archbishop Antoine Prévost de Sansac (1515–1591)) and Jean de Louppes de Villeneuve († 1630), conseiller played a role in this au parlement de Bordeaux , a first cousin of de Montaigne's mother, Antoinette de Louppes de Villeneuve. The intrigue of the Catholic League and its allies reached its climax in April 1585: Attempts were made to bring Bordeaux under their power and to eliminate the mayor Montaigne and Jacques de Goÿon de Matignon. But the latter got ahead of them by summoning all magistrates, judges, members of parliament, etc. to the governor's seat and forcing Jean Ricard de Vaillac to peace under the threat of his public decapitation .

In his office as mayor, Montaigne always tried to mediate between Reformed and Catholics, and in 1583 he negotiated between Henry of Navarre , who had become the closest candidate to the throne in 1584, and King Henry III. initiated. In 1585 he succeeded in preventing Bordeaux from participating in the military on the part of the Catholic League , which was fighting Henry of Navarre. On December 19, 1584, Montaigne was visited for the first time by Henry of Navarre, the future king - and leader of the Calvinist party - Henry IV. He entertained him at his Montaigne castle. Heinrich stayed four days and slept in the master's bed; Montaigne and Heinrich went stag hunting together . During the eighth Huguenot War , also called War of the Three Heinriche (Heinrich von Navarra, Heinrich von Guise and King Heinrich III.), In the period between 1585 and 1598, Montaigne took over for the u. a. ruling administrations that compete with one another on religious issues have the task of an emissary . Both ruling kings, both King Henry III. and Henry of Navarre, appointed Montaigne their chamberlain , gentilhomme ordinaire de la Chambre du Roi . In this way he acted as a mediator between Heinrich von Navarra and Heinrich von Guise, an exposed representative of the Catholic Holy League. On October 24, 1587, shortly after the victory of Henry of Navarre at Coutras over the Holy League , under the leadership of Anne de Joyeuse , Montaigne met the future King Henry IV at Montaigne Castle for a second time. But also between Heinrich von Guise and the still ruling King Heinrich III. he became active in this task.

Six weeks after the end of his second term as mayor, on July 31, 1585, the plague broke out in Bordeaux. Between June and December there were about fourteen thousand victims.

The last years (1585–1592)

After the end of his time as mayor in the late summer of 1585 and the temporary escape from the plague epidemic , he sat down again in his library in the castle tower in order to process new readings, experiences and findings in the essays , which he greatly expanded in the process and a third volume increased.

When he set out for Paris on January 23, 1588 to have the new version in print, he was robbed by aristocratic highwaymen on the way, but got the manuscript back from them. He was accompanied by Odet seigneur de Matignon, comte de Thorigny (1559–1595), the eldest son of Jacques de Goÿon de Matignon. Arrived in Paris on February 20, 1588, he got caught up in the revolt against Henry III, which the Catholic League had instigated on May 12. He was incarcerated in the Bastille on July 10, 1588 , but was quickly released again through intervention by Queen Mother Catherine de Medici . The new edition of the essays appeared in print in June . In that year he also conducted extensive correspondence with the state theorist, philologist and representative of neostoicism Justus Lipsius , who came from the Republic of the Seven United Provinces and who called Montaigne the "French Thales".

Letter from the Bastille of July 10, 1588
Marie de Gournay ; Montaigne called it his fille d'alliance

Apparently at the same time he met Marie de Gournay , who became his spiritual foster daughter. On his return trip in autumn he took part as a guest at the meeting of the Estates General in Blois .

In the following years he revised and increased the essays incessantly . In addition, he traveled several times to Paris to Marie de Gournay, who was able to participate in the progress of the changes and additions.

Portrait probably by François Quesnel , around 1588.

In 1590 he saw the marriage of his only adult daughter, and in 1591 the birth of a granddaughter. Montaigne died suddenly, during a mass in the castle chapel, on September 13, 1592. He may suffer from what is known as a "sore throat", an old name for diphtheria . His body was transferred to the Church of the Feuillants in Bordeaux, église du couvent des Feuillants à Bordeaux , on May 1, 1593 .

Works

In his Les sources et l'évolution des Essais de Montaigne (1908), Pierre Villey divides Montaigne's intellectual and literary development into three phases: he formulates the hypothesis that Montaigne was guided by the ideas of the Stoics in his youth , then to the years 1575 to 1576, went through a "skeptical crisis" before finally entering a phase of maturation reminiscent of the attitudes of an Epicurean . Yet Montaigne, being an eclectic , was not an explicit representative of any particular school of philosophy.

The essays were the first significant philosophical work in French, because philosophical, but above all theological, moral theological and scientific-medical writings were predominantly written in Latin or Middle Latin at the time .

Nevertheless, the essays are not Montaigne's first work , but in addition to his translation of the Sabundus text, it was above all his letters, all in French, many of which he had already written during his time as judge adviser in Bordeaux. However, these were only published in 1571, as an appendix to the Plutarch and Xenophon translations of his friend Étienne de La Boétie, who died early.

The translation of the Book of Creatures

Montaigne was in 1569 in Paris to him in Spanish transmitted text by the Catalan philosopher and theologian Raymond of Sabunde written Latin work Liber creaturarum sive de homine (1436) (German Book of creatures ) publish . His father Pierre Eyquem had asked him around 1565 to translate the text for him, as he - which is understandable in times of violent denominational disputes - was apparently interested in Sabundus' thesis, according to which the visible world, being created by God, and directly accessible to human knowledge, "to be read as a book of divine communication to us". This translation represents, so to speak, Montaigne's first literary work. Sabundus represented a more rational theology ; Instead of resorting to God and the Bible, it is important to deal with what is closest to man, namely to return to oneself, to recognize oneself. Although Montaigne disagreed with Sabundus' theses, he dedicated to him under the title " Apology of Raimundus Sabundus ", the twelfth chapter in the second volume of the essays ; it is the most extensive of his work. Here he expresses his skepticism towards human reason, which for him is generally unsuitable for knowledge. At the same time, he attributes human-like characteristics to many animals based on their ability to reason and perform otherwise. In his theological conception he was close to fideism , which gives faith absolute priority over reason. However, the examination of the work of Raimundus Sabundus brought about an inner change in Montaigne, which "shows traits of unbelief."

The Essais (1572–1592)

The copy of the Essais , Bordeaux edition annotated by Montaigne

With his main work, the Essais (from French essayer = try), Montaigne established the literary form of the essay . But this form had precursors, so it was Pedro Mexía , a humanist author whose main work “ Silva de varia lección ” inspired Montaigne and is considered to be the pioneer of the essay.

It was created between 1572 and his death in 1592. In numerous sections he describes different objects of equally different rank; these range from denominational disputes about medicine and medicine to fundamental problems of human knowledge. Topics such as interpersonal coexistence, witch trials and superstition, but also riding and horses are dealt with side by side in a kaleidoscopic variety. Leitmotivic thoughts only emerge at second glance. The essays change the style of the previously predominant treatise . Montaigne takes an eclectic approach to his subjects. Inspired by ancient authors and philosophical schools, such as Lucretius and his De rerum natura , Cicero , the Epicureans, the Stoa and the Skeptics , he combined spontaneous, associative and volatile ideas into anecdotal texts. Montaigne read the writings of Gaius Iulius Caesar around 1578, works by Francisco López de Gómara between 1584 and 1588, later texts by Plato and Herodotus . Fundamental for the skeptical attitude in his essays was Montaigne's engagement with the Greek doctor and philosopher Sextus Empiricus , a representative of Pyrrhonism , that Pyrrhonic skepticism that goes back to Pyrrhon of Elis .

A development can be seen in Montaigne's writing : First of all, well-known text passages, loci communes , from classical literature are found more frequently . These are replaced by descriptions from his personal world of experience and ultimately flow into the human condition , the exploration of human existence. Montaigne very precisely described his inner feelings and social encounters. The essais follow the author's “stream of consciousness” into the most varied areas of life. Skepticism towards any dogma , stoic disdain for outward appearances and rejection of human arrogance towards other natural creatures characterize the essais , in which the author deals with areas such as literature , philosophy , morality , education and much more. His primary concern was the value of concrete experience and independent judgment as the most important educational goal. That is why he dealt with outstanding ancient philosophers and writers . The most common authors were Horace , Plutarch, Martial , Catullus , Lucan , Quintilian and especially Cicero, Lucretius, Seneca , Virgil , Properz , Plato, Ovid and Juvenal .

" As my mind meanders, so does my style "

- Essais

- these words are characteristic of the playful openness of his diverse digressions and the development of his thoughts on paper. His writings are so rich and flexible that they could be adapted by almost any philosophical school. On the other hand, they are so consistently opposed to any consistent interpretation that it is by doing this that they show its limits.

Montaigne expanded and edited his essays throughout his life. The individual volumes were completed in three stages. In 1579 he completed Book I of the Essais and wrote Book II. On March 1, 1580, the first two volumes were published in Bordeaux by Simon Milanges, an imprimeur ordinaire du Roy . Both volumes were so successful that they were reprinted slightly expanded as early as 1582 and again in 1587. The third volume was written between 1586 and 1587. The 1588 edition, which also contains volume III, is known as the Bordeaux copy; it was further supplemented by him. In the last four years of his life he received support from the young noblewoman Marie de Gournay. A complete edition of the essays appeared posthumously in Paris in 1595, edited by his wife Françoise, his spiritual adoptive daughter Marie de Gournay and Pierre de Brach . The basis for this was a copy of a manuscript that seemed to correspond to the latest version of Montaigne's work. This edition was reprinted repeatedly. However, the basis of today's critical editions is the original, the "Exemplaire de Bordeaux", which was found later and contains further changes.

Montaigne's concept of perception

For Montaigne, sensory perception was a highly unreliable act, because people can suffer from false perceptions , illusions , hallucinations ; one cannot even say for sure whether one is not dreaming . The person who perceives the world with his senses hopes for knowledge from it . But he is subject to the danger of delusion , and the human senses are not sufficient to grasp the true nature of things . The appearance should be separated from actual being ; He thinks that is impossible, because for that you need a criterion, as an unmistakable sign of correctness . However, such a criterion would not be reliable on its own, so that a second control criterion would be necessary, which in turn would have to be controlled, etc. to infinity. For Montaigne, the apparent certainty of sensory impressions is based exclusively on subjective sensations ; the result of what is perceived remains relative. With the help of the term apparence , Montaigne creates a way out. So although humans cannot recognize the essence of things, they are nevertheless able to perceive them in their constantly changing appearances.

Montaigne's philosophy of skepticism

Alongside Francisco Sanches , a distant cousin seventeen years his junior , who also studied at the Collège de Guyenne , and his friend and student Pierre Charron , Montaigne is considered to be one of the main representatives of skepticism in the late Renaissance. His work "Apologie de Raimond Sebond" , which was written between 1575 and 1580, offers access to Montaigne's skepticism . ( Essais II 12) He was familiar with the main works of the ancient skeptic Sextus Empiricus and, through them, with Pyrrhon of Elis. Montaigne understood Sabundus' writing as a summary of the theological position of Thomas Aquinas . His essay about him was thus also an examination of the current theology of his time. Montaigne emphasizes, however, that man must be denied a natural knowledge of God; Sabundus' evidence of natural theology fails to convince him. He also considers atheism to be incompatible with his goal of “shaming man's arrogance and pride and crushing them.” For Montaigne, man is not the center of the natural order. On the contrary: many animals have a number of advantages over humans. "The most unfortunate and most frail of all creatures is man, but at the same time the most haughty." For him, man is seduced to sin in the Christian sense in his urge for knowledge and wisdom. With reference to the Bible ( Col. 2, 8 and 1. Cor. 1 ) Montaigne demanded a conscious renunciation of knowledge.

With the help of Pyrrhonic skepticism, Montaigne criticized the human capacity for knowledge: man cannot know truth with certainty. This is mainly due to the unreliability of the human senses. In the same way, there would be no universally valid criterion for rational judgments. The skeptical consideration based on personal experience of the things around us, of the people around us and of ourselves, liberates our ideas from deception and is the only way to achieve independent knowledge. This makes one's own self the most suitable object for achieving this independence. The introspection let us through the discovery of one's being and the understanding of other people.

Montaigne did not see his skepticism as destructive, but already described Pyrrhon's intentions as a positive basic attitude. “He [Pyrrhon] did not want to make himself an insensitive stone or block, but rather a living person who ponders and ponders back and forth, enjoys all natural comforts and pleasures, who exercises all his physical and mental abilities and focuses on righteous ones and served in a well-ordered manner. However, Pyrrhon honestly renounced the imagined and delusional privilege that people wrongly claimed to establish, regulate and school the truth. ” Günter Abel , for example, sees this attitude as a cornerstone for modern tolerance thinking . The skeptical attitude is the basis to critically reject every form of dogmatism and fanaticism and to develop a demanding ethic. Approaches to an ethical position transcending skepticism within the essays have been worked out on various occasions. In addition to skepticism and tolerance, Montaigne's exemplariness, based on the individual introspection described above, opens up an undogmatic commitment.

For Montaigne, his basic Christian attitude, which pursues the goal of purifying the human spirit , is compatible with the “skeptical method”. He understood it as a means to take supposedly absolute certainties from the human spirit and thereby to open it to the grace of divine revelation . He confessed to the Roman Catholic Church because he grew up and was brought up in the Catholic faith. “What he likes about Catholicism, what he admires and preaches, is the traditional order,” that is, less the theological order than social cohesion. He therefore fought for his faith in the times of Reformation upheaval. Apparently he gave the exposed leaders on the Catholic side a very far-reaching understanding of their actions and remained loyal to the Catholic camp throughout his life. It is known that two of Montaigne's siblings were drawn to Calvinism. This is probably one of the reasons why Montaigne pursued a confessionally conciliatory and balancing path, as can be seen from his time as maire de Bordeaux .

Montaigne and his relationship to death "Que philosopher c'est apprendre à mourir"

In his dialogue with Phaedo, Plato let the philosopher Socrates note that the philosophers should live as close as possible to death, and that philosophy in this sense is a preparation for death. Referring to Horace, Montaigne dealt with dying and death as a goal in life. Especially under the influence of Lucretius and his De rerum natura he developed his idea of ​​an affirmed life and a death with dignity. The reflective contemporary, for whom Montaigne himself advocates as an example in his essais , should always be aware that he is mortal and that his life is limited. It is therefore important not to waste this short lifetime with secondary actions. His relationship to death is part of his reflections on the art of living . For Montaigne, a contented and happy life built on the area that ancient medicine and Galen in particular had described with the idea of sex res non naturales . Montaigne's death reflections may have been inspired by a serious riding accident. In his essay “About practicing” he reports - himself a passionate rider - of falling from a horse after which he was unconscious and could no longer communicate actively or intensively with his surroundings for a long time. What was particularly remarkable for him was the new experience: “Qui apprendroit les hommes à mourir, leur apprendroit à vivre” (German who teaches people to die, teaches them to live ).

reception

René Descartes often refers to Montaigne in his Discours de la méthode (1637), although he only mentions him once by name. In some of Shakespeare's later dramas , especially The Tempest , the influence of Montaigne's thoughts is unmistakable.

Around 1655 Blaise Pascal had conversations with his confessor Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy (1613–1684) in the monastery of Port Royal des Champs ; this resulted in the Entretien avec M. de Saci sur Épictète et Montaigne (1655), in which he sketched his anthropology between the two poles, Montaigne's skepticism and the stoic ethics of Epictetus . In the Pensées he dealt with Montaigne's writings; Pascal not only oriented himself to Montaigne's writing style, but also adopted many quotations from the essays .

On January 28, 1676, the essays were placed under Pope Clement X on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum . One of the criticisms of the Congregatio Sancti Officii was that Montaigne made positive comments there about Niccolò Machiavelli and his Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (1519). This indexing was only made by Pope Pius IX. repealed on May 27, 1854.

Montaigne's prejudice-free view of human beings and his liberal thinking introduced the tradition of the French moralists and the Enlightenment and influenced numerous philosophers and writers worldwide, including Voltaire and Friedrich Nietzsche , who wrote:

“The fact that such a person wrote has truly increased the desire to live on this earth. At least since I became acquainted with this freest and most powerful soul, I have to say what he says of Plutarch: 'No sooner have I glanced at him than I've grown a leg or a wing.' I would stick with him if the task were set to make himself at home on earth. "

- Friedrich Nietzsche : Untimely considerations. Third piece: Schopenhauer as an educator (1874)

Montaigne's literary work fell into the eight phases of the French wars of religion between 1562 and 1598 . The riots were the result of a weak kingship and religious fanaticism that made intense experience of violence part of everyday life for generations, which may have heightened Montaigne's basic skepticism. Egon Friedell wrote,

“(...) man, guided by Montaigne's hand to himself, to the loving and reckless exploration of his particularities and idiotisms, irrationalisms and paradoxes, ambiguities and backgrounds, must necessarily become a skeptic by realizing that he does not know his way around . "

In 1603, John Florio published the first translation of the essays into a foreign language, namely English, thereby establishing a literary genre that was flourishing in England. The spelling “Essay” is probably based on this in the German-speaking countries. An early Spanish translation of the first volume of the essays was by Francisco de Quevedo .

Montaigne and its epoch

The Kingdom of France and the corresponding domains around 1477.

The events in Gascony at the time of Montaigne and their consequences for Bordeaux

The battle of Castillon on July 17, 1453 was the decisive conflict with Henry VI. of England in favor of Charles VII. King of France at the end of the Hundred Years War . The area of Gascony with its center Bordeaux came back under French rule from the English sphere of influence. On October 12, 1453, the area was completely retaken from France. For the politically largely independent Gascogner, however, the French victory meant more of a cultural and economic occupation . They had their own language, Gascon , a subspecies of Occitan . The return to France was therefore by no means welcomed in the region around Bordeaux with its numerous successful merchants, since the traditional sales markets in England were no longer available. France secured its military and political presence by building two forts in Bordeaux, such as the Château Trompette and the Fort Louis.

Under King Charles V , a salt tax ( gabelle ) was introduced as an indirect tax in parts of France. The south-west of France, freed from this until the enthronement of Henry II in 1547, should now be increasingly burdened with it. The salt tax was hated by the population because it made basic food more expensive. Above all, the poor sections of the population were burdened by this, as they were often also burdened with a waistline . In 1548 there was therefore a revolt against the gabelle in the Guyenne region . In the villages of Angoumois and Lorignac, the tax collectors , gabeleurs , were chased away by the angry peasants. The riot spread across the whole of Guyenne. On August 17-22, 1548, there was a popular uprising in Bordeaux. A senior military officer Tristan de Moneins , lieutenant-général en Guyenne was murdered. In October 1548, under the command of Anne de Montmorency , Connétable de France , the king initiated a punitive expedition followed by a three-month reign of terror. The consequences for Bordeaux and Guyenne were drastic, the city lost its autonomy, the parliament was dissolved, public administration was taken over by officials from other parts of France and military facilities and material were confiscated. The citizens had to pay for the occupation by the royal troops. In 1549 the plague also broke out. It was only Pierre Eyquem de Montaigne, father of Michel de Montaigne, who, as mayor of Bordeaux with diplomatic skills , achieved the return of the important city charter with the help of about twenty large barrels , tonneaux and Bordeaux wines in 1554 .

France at the time of the Wars of Religion

Montaigne's birth and youth coincide with the reign of Francis I. He came from the House of Valois and ruled the French monarchy from 1515 to 1547. During his reign he laid the foundation for French absolutism by centralizing power in Paris and the power of the vassals of the crown broke. The creation and bundling of new financial institutions also represented this policy. Franz abolished obsolete privileges and ignored others to strengthen his direct control over the kingdom. His continued wars, especially against Italy, and his numerous building projects put a strain on the treasury. As a result, taxes like the fork had to be increased. In the Huguenot Wars from 1562 to 1598 it was only apparently about the correct religious affiliation . Rather, the French nobility fought for their privileges and freedom of action, especially against the centralized monarchy.

Dominions - in west and south-west Europe around 1519–1556 - under Carlos I, King of Spain from 1516 to 1556 and Henry II. King of France from 1547 to 1559; including the Kingdom of Navarre , highlighted in yellow

In the European context, it was necessary to find new coalition partners in order to be able to meet Philip II's strong Habsburg Spain on an equal footing. During the reign of Henry II in France, the Calvinist Protestants had gained a growing following among the nobility. After his death in 1559, the empire fell into disrepair under his three successive sons, Franz II , Charles IX. and Heinrich III. - who were all more or less under the influence of their mother Catherine de Medici - into a more than forty year period of dynastic instability and religious conflicts. Catherine de Medici granted the Huguenots freedom of worship outside the cities in 1562 in order to consolidate their own position vis-à-vis the Dukes of Guise . The development escalated in the bloodbath of Wassy (slaughter of the Huguenot community) to the First Huguenot War , from which the Huguenots emerged stronger. The sectarian conflict was also based on the competition between the House of Valois and House of Guise . Thus, for thirty-six years, there was civil war in France, interrupted only by unstable peace treaties with more or less large concessions to the Calvinists.

At the beginning of the conflict, the French admiral Gaspard II. De Coligny, seigneur de Châtillon and Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Condé were the leaders of the Huguenots. Due to his marriage to the Catholic princess Margaret of Valois on August 18, 1571 - six days before St. Bartholomew's Night - this role temporarily fell to Henry IV of Navarre from the House of Bourbon . The Catholic monarchy with Heinrich III., Heinrich von Guise and Katharina von Medici tried to counteract the spread of the Calvinist faith. With his conversion to Catholicism, Heinrich of Navarre finally asserted himself in the line of succession. As king, he directed the country, which had been shattered by civil wars, back towards a unified state. The Edict of Nantes , which guaranteed the French Reformed the freedom to practice their religion, was one of the decisive decrees of his reign. In terms of foreign policy, he repositioned the country as a major power to be taken seriously and resumed the fight for supremacy in Europe against the House of Habsburg .

Honors and museum exhibitions

The University of Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux III was named after him. The Montaigne Prize of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation FVS from Hamburg was awarded annually from 1968 to 2006 by the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen ; he paid tribute to significant cultural contributions from the Romance-speaking area .

Middle French “Que sçay-je?” ( French “Que sais-je?” German “What do I know?” )
Vignette with Montaigne's motto

The castle of Montaigne was largely destroyed by fire in 1885 and then rebuilt in a mix of styles between medieval and neo-renaissance . Only the tower that housed Montaigne's library and study has been preserved in its original state from the 16th century and can be visited.

Works

French original

  • Les Essais de messire Michel, seigneur de Montaigne. First and second volume 1580, third volume 1588.
  • Journal du voyage de Michel Montaigne en Italie, par la Suisse et l'Allemagne. 1774.
  • Montaigne: Œuvres complètes. Textes établis par Albert Thibaudet et Maurice Rat. Paris, Editions Gallimard 1962.

German translations

Full translations:

  • Michael's Herr von Montagne's experiments: alongside the author's life. According to the latest edition by Mr. Peter Coste [Pierre Coste, 1697–1751], translated into German by Johann Daniel Tietz . 3 volumes, Leipzig 1753–1754. (Typesetting facsimile reprint: Diogenes, Zurich 1991–1992, ISBN 3-257-01921-1 )
  • Travels through Switzerland, Germany and Italy. In the years 1580 and 1581. Johann Christian Hendel , Halle 1777, (online) .
  • Thoughts and opinions on all kinds of objects. Translated into German [by Johann Joachim Christoph Bode ]. 6 volumes + register volume (1799), Berlin 1793–1795 (online) , reprint Vienna 1797 (online) .
  • Michel de Montaigne: Collected writings . Historical-critical edition, with introductions and notes based on the translation by Johann Joachim (Christoph) Bode. Edited by Otto Flake and Wilhelm Weigand. Volumes 1-8. G. Müller, Munich; Leipzig 1908–1911.
  • Essays. First modern complete translation by Hans Stilett . ( The Other Library , special issue). Eichborn Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-8218-4472-8 . (Paperback edition: Goldmann-TB 72577, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-442-72577-1 )
  • Diary of the trip to Italy, Switzerland and Germany from 1580 to 1581. Translated, edited and provided with an essay by Hans Stilett. Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-8218-0725-3 .

Selected essays:

literature

Biographies

Secondary literature

Scientific work

  • Isabel Bulitta: Chemins battus - well-trodden paths? Search for the essence and the role of “borrowed truth” in Montaigne's essais (= Studia litteraria . Vol. 13). At the same time: Doctoral dissertation University of Munich 2007, Gottfried Egert Verlag, Wilhelmsfeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-936496-24-6 .
  • Nikolaus Andreas Egel: Montaigne. The multiplicity of the world in the mirror of the self. Master thesis. Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, 2008 (PDF; 644 kB).
  • Ulrich Ritter: Montaigne's skepticism and dramatized skepticism in Shakespeare. Ruhr University, Bochum 2004 (PDF; 809 kB).
  • Julia Caroline Robson: The Dialectic of Self and Other in Montaigne, Proust and Woolf. University of Warwick, Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, 2000 (PDF; 19.9 MB).
  • Hans Adolf Stiehl : Country pictures. Imagological case study on Montaigne. CMZ, Rheinbach-Merzbach 1990, ISBN 3-922584-86-1 (also dissertation, University of Bonn).
  • Hermann Wiedemann: Montaigne and other travelers of the Renaissance. Three travel diaries in comparison: the “Itinerario” by de Beatis, the “Journal de voyage” by Montaigne and the “Crudities” by Thomas Coryate (= Crossing boundaries - Studies on European Modernism. Volume 9). WVT, Trier 1999, ISBN 3-88476-343-1 .

Web links

Commons : Michel de Montaigne  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Michel de Montaigne  - Quotes
Wikisource: Michel de Montaigne  - Sources and full texts
Wikisource: Michel de Montaigne  - Sources and full texts (French)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Historia Critica Philosophiae , Lipsiae, 1744. Volume 4, Edition 2 by Johann Jakob Brucker : books.google.fr .
  2. ^ French Château de Montaigne .
  3. ^ Daniel Ménager: Montaigne et la philosophie de l'ambassade. Bulletin de la Société des Amis de Montaigne (BSAM), VIIIe série, nº 17-18, janvier-juin, 2000, pp. 55-68.
  4. ↑ Montaigne is categorized as a French moralist , a current or genre of text which a. in essayistic style by analyzing human behavior, without historical or temporal reference. The name came from Amaury Duval (1760-1838).
  5. ↑ The last name Eyquem was and is a very common family name in the Gironde and sometimes also appears in the spelling variant Yquem : gw.geneanet.org .
  6. ↑ Uwe Schultz: Michel de Montaigne. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1989, ISBN 3-499-50442-1 , pp. 22, 142.
  7. ↑ see also media history of Bordeaux , Guyenne , Angevin Empire
  8. ↑ Genealogical data of the great grandparents .
  9. ↑ Renaud Camus: Demeures de l'esprit II La France du Sud-Ouest. Fayard, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-213-64554-4 , chapter 3.
  10. ↑ Biographical data of the grandfather .
  11. ^ Biographical data of Pierre Eyquem de Montaigne .
  12. ↑ See also Joseph d'Eymard .
  13. ↑ Mathurin Dreano: La pensée religieuse de Montaigne. Éditions Beauchesne, Paris 2000, p. 23.
  14. ↑ zeno.org Heinrich Graetz : History of the Jews from the oldest times to the present. Leipzig 1890, Volume 8, pp. 472-482.
  15. ↑ So a Moses and Meir Paçagon from Villanueva de Sigena in Aragon is assigned to the maternal ancestors. He was baptized or was forcibly baptized and took the name "Lopez de Villanueva". The Aragonese name then became the French form "Louppes de Villeneuve".
  16. ^ Paul Courteault: Montaigne, maire de Bordeaux. Bordeaux 1933.
  17. ^ Jean Lacouture: Michel de Montaigne. A life between politics and philosophy. Campus, Frankfurt / New York 1998, p. 30.
  18. ↑ Richard Friedenthal: Discoverer of the I. Montaigne, Pascal, Diderot. P. Piper, Munich 1969, p. 24.
  19. ↑ Sarah Bakewell: How should I live? or The Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Answers. CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63969-2 , p. 102.
  20. ^ Collectif: Montaigne. Éditions Slatkine, Paris / Genéve 2002, p. 39 in books.google .
  21. ↑ Yves Louagie: Montaigne de lettres et de pierres. P. 16. (online, PDF; 10.28 MB).
  22. ^ Alain Ruiz: Présence de l'Allemagne à Bordeaux du siècle de Montaigne à la veille de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Homage to the Goethe-Institut de Bordeaux, à l'occasion de son 25e anniversaire. Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, Bordeaux 1997, ISBN 2-86781-208-9 , p. 176.
  23. ↑ Donald M. Frame (Ed.): Michel de Montaigne: The Complete Essays of Montaigne. Stanford University Press, Redwood City (CA) 1958 and 1976, ISBN 0-8047-0486-4 , p. 128, footnote 7.
  24. ↑ Marlene Meding: Being-Self-I with Michel de Montaigne. Helenos Verlag, Salzkotten 2015, ISBN 978-3-945691-01-4 , pp. 15-16.
  25. ↑ Richard Friedenthal : Discoverer of the I. Montaigne, Pascal, Diderot. P. Piper, Munich 1969, p. 23.
  26. ↑ Uwe Schultz: Michel de Montaigne. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1989, ISBN 3-499-50442-1 , p. 25.
  27. ↑ Roger Trinquet: La Jeunesse de Montaigne. AG Nizet, Paris 1972.
  28. ^ Jean Lacouture: Michel de Montaigne. A life between politics and philosophy. Campus, Frankfurt / New York 1998, pp. 14-16.
  29. ↑ Théophile Malvezin: Michel de Montaigne: Son origine, sa famille. Slatkine, Genève 1970, p. 269 (reprint of a book from 1875).
  30. ^ Jean Lacouture: Michel de Montaigne. A life between politics and philosophy. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-593-36025-X , p. 110.
  31. ↑ Mathurin Dreano: La Pensée Religieuse De Montaigne. Editions Beauchesne, 2000, ISBN 2-7010-0252-4 , pp. 67-69.
  32. ↑ Marlene Meding: Being-Self-I with Michel de Montaigne. Helenos Verlag, Salzkotten 2015, p. 43.
  33. ↑ Sarah Bakewell: How should I live? or The Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Answers. CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63969-2 , p. 89.
  34. ^ Jean Lacouture: Michel de Montaigne. A life between politics and philosophy. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-593-36025-X , p. 145.
  35. ^ Raimond Sebond : Theologia naturalis seu liber creaturarum. Sulzbach 1852 ( digitized version of the BSB).
  36. ↑ Christopher Edelman: Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). In: The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (IEP) ( ISSN  2161-0002 ).
  37. ↑ Elisabeth von Thadden: The saving conversation with oneself. Zeit.de, December 15, 2005, accessed on April 1, 2013.
  38. ↑ Marlene Meding: Being-Self-I with Michel de Montaigne. Helenos Verlag, Salzkotten 2015, p. 19.
  39. ↑ Louis Desgraves, Julien Cain: Ville de Bordeaux. La Vie intellectuelle à Bordeaux aux XVI e et XVII e siècles. Exposition organisée à la Bibliothèque municipale à l'occasion du 82 e Congrès national des Sociétés savantes, Bordeaux, avril-may 1957, Bibliothèque municipale impr. Clèdes et fils, p. 56.
  40. ↑ Hans Magnus Enzensberger (ed.): Michel de Montaigne, Essais. First modern complete translation by Hans Stilett . Eichborn Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1998.
  41. ↑ Drawing of La tour de Montaigne with the floor plans of the individual floors [1]
  42. ↑ Marlene Meding: Being-Self-I with Michel de Montaigne. Helenos Verlag, Salzkotten 2015, p. 56.
  43. ↑ Jacqueline Boucher: Deux Epouses et pure à la fin du siècle xvie: Louise de Lorraine et Marguerite de France. Ed. Université de Saint-Étienne, 1995, pp. 175-177.
  44. ↑ Bayle St. John: Montaigne the Essayist, a Biography. Vol. 2, 1858, p. 158.
  45. ^ Alexandre Nicolaï: Les belles amies de Montaigne. Dumas, Paris 1950.
  46. ↑ Jean de Jaurgains: Corisande d'Andoins Comtesse de Guiche et Dame de Gramont. Revue internationale des études Basques. 1-319 .
  47. ↑ Christian Fieseler: The sick body on the move. Montaigne's travel diary as a recorded self-experiment. In: Philip Bracher, Florian Hertweck (eds.): Materiality while traveling: For the cultural transformation of things. (= Travel literature and cultural anthropology. Volume 8). Lit, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9144-5 .
  48. ↑ Marie-Luce Demonet; Alain Legros (ed.): L'écriture du skepticisme chez Montaigne. Librairie Droz, Genève 2004, ISBN 2-600-00898-5 , p. 284.
  49. ↑ Brigitta Cladders: French trips to Venice in the 16th and 17th centuries: Changes in the Venice image and the travel description. Librairie Droz, Genève 2002, ISBN 2-600-00418-1 , p. 262.
  50. ^ Jean Lacouture: Michel de Montaigne. A life between politics and philosophy. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-593-36025-X , p. 202.
  51. ↑ Mark Häberlein: Montaigne, Mühlenberg and the tulip fever. About urban garden cultures in historical change. University of Bamberg, pp. 44-46 (PDF) .
  52. ↑ The route 1580–1581 .
  53. ^ Journal du voyage de Montaigne, Part 1 ; Part 2 ; Part 3 ; Part 4 (all French). The journey started in Paris and led through the following places: La Fère , Beaumont-sur-Oise , Dormans , Épernay , Châlons-en-Champagne , Vitry-le-François , Bar-le-Duc , Vaucouleurs , Domrémy , Mirecourt , Épinal , Plombières , Remiremont , Thann , Mulhouse, Basel, Baden , Constance, Lindau , Augsburg, Munich, Innsbruck , Bozen , Trient , Verona, Vicenza , Padua , Venice, Ferrara, Bologna, Florence, Siena, Rome, Loreto , Ancona, Urbino , Florence, Lucca , Pisa , Pacenza , Padua, Milan, Turin, Lyon, Thiers, Clermont-Ferrand, Limoges, Périgueux, Mauriac back to Montaigne.
  54. ↑ Biographical data of Jacques II de Merville de Pérusse des Cars .
  55. ↑ Data from Antoine Prévost de Sansac ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / gw.geneanet.org
  56. ^ Jean Lacouture: Michel de Montaigne. A life between politics and philosophy. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-593-36025-X , pp. 232-266.
  57. ^ Alphonse Grün: La vie publique de Michel Montaigne: étude biographique. Slatkine, Genève 1970, pp. 178-199.
  58. ↑ Sarah Bakewell: How should I live? or The Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Answers. CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63969-2 , p. 321; or michel-montaigne.virtusens.de/ .
  59. ^ Pierre Villey: Les sources et l'evolution des Essais de Montaigne. Volume 2, Hachette, Paris 1908, pp. 268f.
  60. ^ Carlos Spoerhase ; Dirk Werle ; Markus Wild: Uncertain knowledge: skepticism and probability 1550-1850. (= Historia Hermeneutica. Volume 7). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-021475-8 , p. 111.
  61. ^ Michael Metschies: Quotation and art of citation in Montaigne's essais. Librairie Droz, Genève 1966.
  62. ↑ Hans Blumenberg: The legibility of the world. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1981, p. 66, cf. P. 59f., P. 65.
  63. ↑ Marlene Meding: Being-Self-I with Michel de Montaigne. Helenos Verlag, Salzkotten 2015, p. 27.
  64. ↑ Uwe Schultz: Michel de Montaigne. (Rowohlt's Monographs 442) Rowohlt, Reinbek 1989, ISBN 3-499-50442-1 , p. 44.
  65. ↑ Sarah Bakewell: How should I live? or The Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Answers. CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63969-2 , pp. 136-139.
  66. ↑ Martin Gessmann: Montaigne and the modern age. On the philosophical foundations of a turning point. Felix Meiner, Hamburg 1997, p. 18.
  67. ↑ “It is the ordo neglectus permitted in a Silva that accommodates Montaigne's erratic thinking and writing. The parallels between individual contributions to the Diverses leçons and the Gascogner's early drafts are clearly evident. ”(Wolfgang Adam: Poetic and Critical Woods. Investigations into the history and forms of writing 'on occasion'. Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1988 [= Supplements to Euphorion, Journal for the History of Literature , Issue 22], p. 231).
  68. ^ Hugo Friedrich: Montaigne. Francke Verlag, Bern / Munich 1967, p. 9.
  69. ^ Rudolf Lüthe: Skepticism, melancholy, irony. Volume 14 of Philosophische Plädoyers, LIT Verlag, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-643-10529-5 , p. 23f.
  70. ^ Pierre Villey : Les sources et l'évolution des Essais de Montaigne. Hachette, Paris 1908. [2] Retrieved from archive.org
  71. ↑ Hans Peter Balmer: Montaigne and the art of the question. Outlines of the essays. Franke Verlag, Tübingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-7720-8261-0 , p. 14.
  72. ↑ Sarah Bakewell: The Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Answers. CH Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-65629-3 .
  73. ↑ Susanne Schmarje: The proverbial material in the "Essais" by Montaigne: Volume 1: Treatises. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1973, ISBN 3-11-002471-3 .
  74. ↑ s. Wolf-Eberhard Träger: Structure and thought leadership in Montaigne's essays. Carl Winter Verlag, Heidelberg 1961.
  75. ^ Danilo Marcondes: Montaigne's view of skepticism and language in the essais. In: Douglas A. Kibbee (Ed.): History of Linguistics 2005: Selected Papers from the Tenth International Conference on History of the Language Sciences (ICHOLS X). September 1-5, 2005, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. John Benjamin Publishing, 2007, ISBN 978-90-272-4603-5 , pp. 103f.
  76. ↑ Jean Lacoutuer: Michel de Montaigne. A life between politics and philosophy. Campus, Frankfurt / New York 1998, p. 331.
  77. ^ Richard H. Popkin: The History of Skepticism: From Savonarola to Bayle: From Savonarola to Bayle. Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-19-535539-3 , pp. 38f.
  78. ↑ Michel Montaigne: Essais. Translated by Hans Stilett . Eichborn, Frankfurt 1998, pp. 217-300; Paperback: dtv, Munich 2011, pp. 165–416.
  79. ^ Rochus Leonhardt: Skepticism and Protestantism: the philosophical approach of Odo Marquard. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2003, p. 59.
  80. ^ Rochus Leonhardt: Skepticism and Protestantism: the philosophical approach of Odo Marquard. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2003, p. 60.
  81. ↑ Michel Montaigne: Essais. Translated by Hans Stilett. Eichborn, Frankfurt 1998, p. 222; Paperback: dtv, Munich 2011, p. 181.
  82. ↑ Michel Montaigne: Essais. Translated by Hans Stilett. Eichborn, Frankfurt 1998, p. 223; Paperback: dtv, Munich 2011, p. 186.
  83. ^ Rochus Leonhardt: Skepticism and Protestantism: the philosophical approach of Odo Marquard. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2003, p. 62.
  84. ^ Alois Rust: The use of the doubt with Montaigne. In: Hermeneutische Blätter. (2011) 1/2, pp. 114-134. Zurich Open Repository and Archive. (online, PDF; 210.45 kB).
  85. ↑ Peter Kunsmann, Franz-Peter Burkard, Franz Wiedmann: dtv-Atlas philosophy. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-423-03229-4 , p. 97.
  86. ↑ Michel Montaigne: Essais. translated by Hans Stilett. Eichborn, Frankfurt 1998, p. 284; Paperback: dtv, Munich 2011, pp. 266–267.
  87. ^ Günter Abel: Montaigne. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia . Volume 23, 1993, p. 266; in detail: Uwe Schultz: The invention of tolerance. Michel de Montaigne and Henri Quatre, King of France. Hamburg 1998.
  88. ^ Rochus Leonhardt: Skepticism and Protestantism: the philosophical approach of Odo Marquard. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2003, p. 65.
  89. ↑ Volker Gerhardt: Exemplary Thinking. Essays from Mercury . Beck, Munich 2009, p. 17 .
  90. ↑ Jerome B. Schneewind: Montaigne on moral philosophy and the good life . In: Langer (Ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Montaigne . Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, New York 2005, pp. 207-228 .
  91. ^ Charlotte Bretschneider: Montaignes exemplary ethics. On the way to the conception of the sovereign individual . Fink, Paderborn 2015.
  92. ^ Cody Franchetti: The Giants of Doubt: A Comparison between Epistemological Aspects of Descartes and Pascal. In: Open Journal of Philosophy. (2012) Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 183-188.
  93. ↑ Markus Wild: The anthropological difference. The spirit de animals in the early modern period in Montaigne, Descartes and Hume. (2006), pp. 69f.
  94. ^ André Gide , Foreword to the Essais, Gallimard, 1962.
  95. ^ Jean Lacouture: Michel de Montaigne. A life between politics and philosophy. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-593-36025-X , p. 224.
  96. ↑ Peter Vollbrecht: How people really are. Michel Montaigne. Philosophical Forum, pp. 1-6, online.
  97. ↑ Stephen Greenblatt: The Turn. How the renaissance began. Siedler, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-88680-848-9 , pp. 252-258.
  98. ↑ Josef Rattner, Gerhard Danzer: Philosophy in the 17th century: the discovery of reason and nature in the intellectual life of Europe. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-3281-0 , p. 29f.
  99. ^ Elisabeth Gutjahr: Studies on didactic guiding principles in the traditions of skepticism and rhetoric. (= Writings on scientific pedagogy. Volume 3). Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2004, ISBN 3-8260-2725-6 , p. 133.
  100. ^ Léon Brunschvicg: Descartes et Pascal lecteurs de Montaigne. Neuchatel, 1942, p. 98.
  101. ^ William M. Hamlin: Montaigne's English Journey. Reading the Essays in Shakespeare's Day. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-968411-3 , Chapter 5: Montaignian Conscience and the Shakespearean God-Surrogate. Pp. 110–128 and notes, pp. 280–287 , with further references.
  102. ^ Herbert Luethy: Montaigne or Truthfulness. ( Memento of March 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) 1953, pp. 173–193. (online, p. 178).
  103. ^ Paul Halsall: Modern History Sourcebook: Index librorum prohibitorum, 1557-1966 (Index of Prohibited Books). Internet History Sourcebooks Project (Fordham University May l, 1998).
  104. ^ Egon Schütz: Montaignes Essais on Education University of Cologne. Pedagogical seminar. Philosophical Faculty. Recorded by F. Felger. WS 1995/96, p. 7. (PDF; 5.77 MB; 142 pages).
  105. ↑ Egon Friedell: Cultural History of the Modern Age. Beck, Munich 1965 (first 1927), Chapter 9: The Bartholomew Night .
  106. ↑ Sarah Bakewell: How should I live? or The Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Answers. CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63969-2 , p. 73 ff.
  107. ↑ 1 tonneau = 912 liters.
  108. ^ Eva Mellinger, Frank Baasner: The Montaigne Prize 1968-2000. (Publication series "Akzente für Europa"). Christians-Verlag, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-7672-1402-4 .
  109. ^ Montaigne Prize. ( Memento from January 21, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Toepfer-FVS.de.
  110. ^ Official website of the Chateau de Montaigne. .
personal data
SURNAME Montaigne, Michel de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de; Micheau; Montanus, Michaelius; Miquèu Eiquèm de Montanha
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French politician, lawyer, philosopher and author
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1533
PLACE OF BIRTH Montaigne Castle (Dordogne)
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 1592
Place of death Montaigne Castle (Dordogne)