Michel de Montaigne

Michel de Montaigne was born in 1533 at the château of Montaigne near Bordeaux. His father had him spoken to from infancy only by a tutor and servants who spoke Latin, so that Latin was his 'mother tongue'. He served as a magistrate of the Parlement of Bordeaux, where he formed a deep friendship with the young magistrate Étienne de La Boétie, whose early death left him grief-stricken. At thirty-eight he resigned his office and withdrew to the library in the tower of his château, had sayings of the ancients carved into the roof beams, and began to write the Essays. He was later twice mayor of Bordeaux and worked as a mediator in the Wars of Religion. His motto was 'What do I know?'