1659 Essays of Michel de Montaigne in French Renaissance Philosophy Humanism
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.”
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays
First published in 1580, the Essays of Michel de Montaigne were a collection of essays and writings on a variety of topics and content. Montaigne was rather decisive in his rhetoric and used various Ancient Greek, Latin, and Italian texts as examples and references, such as Lucretius and Plutarch quotations. Montaigne himself stated that the goal of his essays was to describe man with ‘utter frankness and honesty.’ According to the scholar Paul Oskar Kristeller, "the writers of the period were keenly aware of the miseries and ills of our earthly existence". Montaigne sought to break man down into his basic features, which, at the time, was extreme volatility. He wrote on marriage being an absolute necessity for raising children, but he also quoted, in the ‘Essays,’ that “Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside desperate to get out."
MONTAIGNE, Michel de
Les essais de Michel, seigneur de Montaigne
A Amsterdam, Chez Anthoine Michiels, Libraire, 1659.
Details:
•Collation complete with all pages; [4], 510, [77]
•Language: French
•Binding: Leather; tight & secure
•Size: ~6in X 4in (15cm x 10cm)
•Very rare with no other example for sale worldwide at present
Seller: Old Europe Antique Home Furnishings (512) 686-6531
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.”
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays
First published in 1580, the Essays of Michel de Montaigne were a collection of essays and writings on a variety of topics and content. Montaigne was rather decisive in his rhetoric and used various Ancient Greek, Latin, and Italian texts as examples and references, such as Lucretius and Plutarch quotations. Montaigne himself stated that the goal of his essays was to describe man with ‘utter frankness and honesty.’ According to the scholar Paul Oskar Kristeller, "the writers of the period were keenly aware of the miseries and ills of our earthly existence". Montaigne sought to break man down into his basic features, which, at the time, was extreme volatility. He wrote on marriage being an absolute necessity for raising children, but he also quoted, in the ‘Essays,’ that “Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside desperate to get out."
MONTAIGNE, Michel de
Les essais de Michel, seigneur de Montaigne
A Amsterdam, Chez Anthoine Michiels, Libraire, 1659.
Details:
•Collation complete with all pages; [4], 510, [77]
•Language: French
•Binding: Leather; tight & secure
•Size: ~6in X 4in (15cm x 10cm)
•Very rare with no other example for sale worldwide at present
Seller: Old Europe Antique Home Furnishings (512) 686-6531