IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ❘ MONTAIGNE IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MONTAIGNE
One of the most important Renaissance philosophers and the inventor of the essay, Michel de Montaigne was also a keen traveller, as Hazel Smith discovers
I
n 1571, the French nobleman Michel de Montaigne sold his seat at the Bordeaux Parliament, retired from public service, sequestered himself in the circular tower of his family castle, and
began to write the Essais. Known today as one of the most influential authors of the French Renaissance, Montaigne initiated a new genre of writing, the essai, from the French verb essayer, meaning trial or attempt. Concentrating on his own thoughts and experiences, Montaigne’s Essais covered a wide range of subjects, including vanity, virtue, idleness, marriage, babies, the custom of wearing clothes, his dietary preferences, his kidney stones, the art of conversation and even cannibals. Montaigne stated: “I have embarked on a long road which I shall travel without toil and without ceasing as long as the world has ink and paper”. Without Montaigne’s influence, there would be no Pepys or Boswell, nor, perhaps, Facebook or TikTok: he was, in many ways, the first blogger. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was born into an upwardly mobile family whose status hung by a thread: his great- grandfather had been a wealthy herring merchant who in 1477 bought the Château de Montaigne and the title of lord that came with it. Unwittingly, the classically-educated Montaigne was thrown into a life of civic duty when his father relinquished his seat at the Bordeaux Parlement to him in 1557.
QUEST FOR KNOWLEDGE Montaigne’s motto, Que-sais je? (What do I know?), illustrated a certain apathy that he felt towards the judicial system, but despite his cynicism, he gained entry into the French court, travelling to Paris on behalf of the Bordeaux Parlement and negotiating the welfare of the city with the royal administration. He was in regular diplomatic contact with Catherine de’ Medici and her sons, Charles IX and Henri III. With a knighthood of the Order
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of Saint-Michel under his belt, Montaigne could now rest on his laurels. Withdrawing from public life at the age of 38, he moved a chair, a table and a thousand books into the tower of his family château near the Dordogne river. With the benefit of his vast collection of tomes, he spent a decade writing his essays: Montaigne could see more books spread out in his circular tower than earlier scholars had seen in a lifetime of travel; nevertheless, travel he did. Michel de Montaigne can be imagined on horseback, riding in his satin breeches from his estate to Bordeaux, as well as elsewhere in France – Blois, Rouen, Paris, and even further afield.
“HE WAS PLAGUED BY KIDNEY STONES AND SOUGHT RELIEF
BY TAKING THE WATERS AT VARIOUS SPAS”
Geographical details and regional idiosyncrasies greatly interested him. Travel, he said, was a very profitable enterprise, employing the soul in observing new and unknown things. Montaigne wrote that the purpose of travel was to “rub and polish our brains against the brains of others”. A naturally inquisitive ethnographer, Montaigne was keen to speak to people at all levels of society and extended his curiosity to the inhabitants of the New World, three of whom he met in 1563, when Brazilian natives were brought to Rouen by a French explorer. The suffering and humiliation imposed on these indigenous South Americans provoked his indignation and compassion. Disillusioned by constant civil and religious wars in his homeland, in June of 1580, after the publication of his first two books of Essais, Montaigne embarked on a European tour. He and his entourage
travelled through France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland to arrive in Rome, a city central to his classical education. The journey was partly for pleasure and partly for health: he was plagued by kidney stones throughout his life and sought relief by taking the waters at various spas.
Despite the pain he endured, Montaigne’s cheerfulness was contagious and his attendants followed him gladly in his pursuit of unknown roads and unseen sights. In 1770, 178 years after his death, a manuscript was discovered at his château in an unexamined chest – the Journal du Voyage de Montaigne. He had spoken of his travels in his Essais, but it was thought he hadn’t kept a record of his travels. This lucky find contained a lively description of life on the road, detailing prices, food, lodgings and customs he encountered, alongside some scandalous tales.
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