Montaigne Publishes His First Essays

In 1571, on the last day of February, Michel de Montaigne commemorated his thirty-eighth birthday by declaring his withdrawal from civic responsibilities. He had stepped down from his post as a magistrate on the high court in Bordeaux and returned to his family estate, the Chateau de Montaigne. In his tower library, where the Essais took shape, he arranged for a Latin inscription dedicating the remaining portion of his life to quiet study, freedom, and reflection. Over the subsequent decade, this self-imposed retreat served as the workshop for his Essais, a collection of reflective prose that was first printed in 1580.

Montaigne had inherited the estate after the death of his father, Pierre Eyquem, a former mayor of Bordeaux who had planned an unusual education for his son. In infancy, Montaigne had spent three spartan years boarding with a peasant family so that he would understand the condition of common labourers. When he returned to the chateau, his father instructed a German tutor and the household servants to converse with the boy entirely in Latin. Montaigne thus acquired Latin as his primary tongue before completing his formal schooling at the College de Guienne by age thirteen, after which he entered legal training.