Talk:Michel de Montaigne

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

France Portal
Michel de Montaigne is within the scope of WikiProject France, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to France on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please join the project and help with our open tasks.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale. Please rate the article and then leave a short summary here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
Biography Portal
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]

Please rate the article and, if you wish, leave comments here regarding your assessment or the strengths and weaknesses of the article.
Socrates
Philosophy Portal
This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Philosophy, which collaborates on articles related to philosophy. To participate, you can edit this article or visit the project page for more details.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.
Low This article has been rated as low-importance on the importance scale.

Contents

[edit] religion

he was jewish

His mother was of Jewish origin, but he himself clearly was a Catholic. Mjklin 07:37, 7 May 2004 (UTC)
             He wasn't a Jewish. He was an agnostic. He didn't belong to any religion.--Starnold 08:23, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Solitarium Library

How did he get to be so well-read? He retired at age 38 to his library in his "Solitarium." The library contained over 1,000 volumes.

[edit] Michel de Montaigne

What's up with the 'critical essay' by some college student that's linked? Is there any reason for it to be there? Wilhelm Ritter

[edit] Date correction?

It says that Montaigne went to study law at Toulouse in 1539...he was six years old then? (if he was born in 1533). Was he actually a child prodigy or is this a typo? 65.95.1.85 22:09, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Montaigne started in a child's school called the College de Guyenne, in Bordeaux, at this year. He did not start law school, in Toulouse, until 1546. This looks like a typo. John K, July 15, 2006

[edit] Spanish jew or portuguese jew?

My uncle, a professor, told me that this person was not a descendant of spanish jews but of portuguese jews. he is studied in english, spanish, french and portuguese. says hgis mother was loppes or lopes. does anyone know if this is true or have anymore information about that? thank you.

--Lusitano Transmontano 00:01, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

His maternal grandfather was a Spanish converso.

[edit] Citations needed (Specifically Shakespeare)

"Montaigne's book of essays is one of the few books scholars can confirm Shakespeare had in his library; the essay On Cannibals was a direct source for The Tempest." In view of current controversy about Shakespeare's sources of education and the origins of The Tempest citations are needed for both assertions. Xxanthippe 22:07, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

From what I've read about Shakespeare, there is no information whatsoever about any books that Shakespeare had in his "library," or whether he had a library at all. Many things have been asserted as true only by implication. The famous "little Latin and lesser Greek" quotation merely suggests that Shakespeare must have known French, since it was a much more accessible language. Wikipedia really ought to refrain from re-writing history.
From Montaigne's Of Cannibals: for clever people observe more things and more curiously, but they interpret them; and to lend weight and conviction to their interpretation, they cannot help altering history a little. They never show you things as they are, but bend and disguise them according to the way they have seen them; and to give credence to their judgment and attract you to it, they are prone to add something to their matter, to stretch it out and amplify it. We need a man either very honest, or so simple that he has not the stuff to build up false inventions ...

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.196.77.76 (talk) 15:28, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

There are no specific books he is known to have owned, but he clearly knew Ovid, Holinshead and other works. He is more likely to have known Italian than French, from the sources he used, and the tendency now is to think he had good reading Latin. I'm adding an online ref. Johnbod (talk) 03:38, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

"but he clearly knew Ovid, Holinshead and other works" OK, we're in agreement. That's what I'm calling implication. Good idea to add a link. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.196.77.76 (talk) 16:00, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Rousseau and Nietzsche

just citing an influence is not the most appropriate if we cannot trace the link back from them... There is no link on Montaigne in Rousseau's article fro instance.. Daedalus2100 19:00, 20 January 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Opinion

' Michel de Montaigne perhaps thinks very highly of himself, thus the quote, ""I have never seen a greater monster or miracle than myself." as said in "Essays."'

This should be removed. Taken out of context, it's completely baseless. Pure opinion.

--Totally agree. If there was ever an ironic writer who could make light of himself, and was very humble, it was this one. John K, April 18, 2007

[edit] language

I think it would be interesting to highlight that besides Latin, Motaigne's mother tongue was Gascon; this is important since French (langue de Oi) was his third tongue, being this essential to understand the importance of his writtings. I would also add that while in Rome his literary production is on the local language. --195.252.86.16 21:41, 31 May 2007 (UTC)