Renaissance humanism · scepticism · 1533–1592

Michel de Montaigne

Paint not being, but passage.

Montaigne (Périgord) · Bordeaux · Rome

Portraits: artistic interpretations

Reading guides

A thread to guide your reading.

Original introductions to enter the works, discover their central questions and take the reflection further.

Follow how the Essays turn borrowed examples into a trial of judgment and a portrait of the writer in motion.

Examine how the Apology uses animals, the quarrels of philosophers and the weakness of the senses to humble reason.

Read the Travel Journal as a field record of customs, religion and illness that feeds the later Essays.