1533–1592

Essayist

Early Life.

Born in Bordeaux in southern France, Michel de Montaigne's father oversaw his early education by hiring tutors to teach the child Latin at an early age. Allowed only to speak this language until the age of six, Montaigne then entered the Collège de Guyenne, a secondary school in Bordeaux and a center of the humanist movement in France. He stayed there until he was 16, at which point he moved on to attend the University of Toulouse, another center of French humanism and a place of fervent religious debate at the time.

Religious Wars.

Like other humanistically-educated sons of prosperous fathers, Montaigne soon made a political career. In 1554 he took a legal post at Perigeaux and a few years later he became a member of the parlement (a local court of appeals) at Bordeaux. While a member of the parlement Montaigne...