Michel de Montaigne

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533–1592) was a French nobleman, magistrate and the inventor of the essay. Raised speaking Latin on his family's estate near Bordeaux, he served thirteen years as a counselor in the Bordeaux parlement, retired at thirty-eight to the library in his tower and began the Essays, published in 1580 and enlarged in 1588 and after his death. He traveled to Italy, served two terms as mayor of Bordeaux during the wars of religion and was a trusted intermediary between Henry III and the future Henry IV. His habit of examining his own mind with candor and skepticism made him the most companionable writer of the Renaissance.