Desan Philippe - Montaigne

MONTAIGNE

MONTAIGNE

A Life

PHILIPPE DESAN

Translated by Steven Rendall and Lisa Neal

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Princeton & Oxford

First published in French under the title Montaigne: Une biographie politique by Philippe Desan. Odile Jacob, 2014

Copyright 2017 by Princeton University Press

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Jacket art: Portrait of Montaigne, c. 1590, School of Fontainebleau, anonymous. Private collection. Oil on copper plate. 8.8 cm. diam.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Desan, Philippe, author. | Rendall, Steven, translator. | Neal, Lisa (Lisa Dow), translator.

Title: Montaigne : a life / Philippe Desan ; translated by Steven Rendall and Lisa Neal.

Other titles: Montaigne: Une biographie politique. English

Description: Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016012378 | ISBN 9780691167879 (hardback : acid-free paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592. | Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592Political and social views. | Authors, French16th centuryBiography. | BISAC: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Political. | BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary. | PHILOSOPHY / Political. | LITERARY CRITICISM / Renaissance. | LITERARY CRITICISM / European / French.

Classification: LCC PQ1643 .D39513 2017 | DDC 844/.3 [B] dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/201601237British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

This book has been composed in Garamond Premier Pro and Stancia

Printed on acid-free paper.

Printed in the United States of America

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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Some books take a long time to write. That is the case for this biography of Montaigne, which draws on many investigations I have published in various books and journals over more than twenty-five years. But a book is also a conversation with specialists. There is no lack of specialists on Montaigne, and unfortunately I cannot mention them all here. However, I want to thank those who have allowed me to present the various stages of my research at colloquia and in lectures and seminars in France and abroad, and also those who have offered valuable suggestions and criticisms, notably Katherine Almquist, Jean-Robert Armogathe, Celso Martins Azar Filho, Anna Bettoni, Telma Birchal, Claude Blum, Concetta Cavallini, Anne-Marie Cocula, Denis Crouzet, Jean-Charles Darmon, Emiliano Ferrari, Vronique Ferrer, Philip Ford, Thierry Gontier, Rosanna Gorris, Olivier Guerrier, Dorothea Heitsch, George Hoffmann, Neil Kenny, Ullrich Langer, Chiara Lastraioli, Alain Legros, Frank Lestringant, Juan Llus Llins Begon, Peter Mack, Hassan Melehy, Jan Miernowski, John OBrien, Gianni Paganini, Nicola Panichi, Loris Petris, Michel Simonin, Paul J. Smith, Jos Alexandrino de Souza Filho, Richard Strier, and especially Jean Balsamo, a learned expert on Montaigne and a long-standing friend, whose enlightened advice enabled me, from the beginning of this project, to avoid many a slipup. In addition, I thank my editors at Princeton University Press, Ben Tate, Sara Lerner, and Dawn Hall, for their attentive readings of the manuscript and their judicious editorial suggestions. The English translation of this book by Steven Rendall and Lisa Neal surpasses my best expectations and in many ways renders the reading more fluid. Thanks to their careful reading and editing, many blunders and ambiguous passages present in the French edition have been corrected. Any remaining errors are, of course, entirely my own. I am grateful for the University of Chicagos Humanities Visiting Committee, which subsidized in part the translation of this book. I am also indebted to my students (graduate and undergraduate) who, over the last three decades, have participated in my seminars on Montaigne at the University of Chicago. They often served as a testing ground for new approaches and interpretations, and I have greatly benefited from their comments and reactions.

Finally, there are the faithful friends: Franois, Giovanni, Nicole, Pierre, Francine, and Pessel. Their generosity and goodwill have eased the completion of this work. Not to forget Eriko, who continues to put up with my deficient sociability and who has long since accepted Montaigne as a member of the family. I dedicate this book to her.

FIGURE 1. Antoine-Jean Gros, Charles Quint venant visiter lglise de Saint-Denis, o il est reu par Franois Ier, accompagn de ses fils et des premiers de sa cour, 1812. Photo RMN-Grand Palais (muse du Louvre) / Michel Urtado.

PROLOGUE

Who wouldnt have liked to see Montaigne with Francis I and Charles V? This meeting, which never took place, was nonetheless made possible in 1812 thanks to Baron Antoine-Jean Gros (17711835), a painter of historical and military subjects and of religious compositions. His painting, Charles Quint venant visiter lglise de Saint-Denis, o il est reu par Franois Ier, accompagn de ses fils et des premiers de sa cour ( The young Michel stands alongside the platform, on the right. The magnificence of the event seems hardly to impress him; he is concentrating his gaze on a detail we cannot see. The scene is supposed to date from January 1540, so that the Montaigne in the picture would be seven years old.

In the nineteenth century, Montaigne specialists argued about his exact place in this picture, as if Gros might have been mistaken about the identity of his figures. Dr. Payen, an eminent and erudite Montaignologist of his time, preferred to identify Montaigne not with the young man near the platform, but with a gentleman standing just behind the monarchs. Payen ignored the painters designation of the figure and unhesitatingly replaced Henri dAlbret with the author of the Essais. The argument he gave to justify this iconological correction has to do with figures physiognomy and a few details of the clothing. We note that the necklace on the gentlemans dove-gray vest vaguely resembles the chain and medal of the Order of Saint Michael conferred on Montaigne in 1571, more than thirty years later. Other Montaigne specialists also disagreed with the painters idea of respecting the dates and representing Montaigne as a child. All this seems to ignore the fact that the figure supposedly representing Montaigne is as tall as Charles V and looks like he is closer to twenty than seven. They preferred to see Montaigne standing, behind the sovereigns, himself a noble and an important political actor. Disregarding chronology, they opted for a Montaigne who was already in full possession of his abilities as a negotiator; in that way they wanted to indicate that the essayist would no doubt have been one of the kingpins at a meeting between Charles V and Francis I, had he been lucky enough to have been born twenty years earlier. Never mind the dates, here we are in the order of the possible; it was better to broaden the pictures temporal framework a little in order to insert Montaigne into it as a wise philosopher and accomplished author.