Scholars from around the world will come to Cambridge next week for a conference utilising the University Library’s impressive collection of material associated with the French Renaissance essayist Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592).
Scholars from around the world will come to Cambridge next week for a conference utilising the University Library’s impressive collection of material associated with the French Renaissance essayist Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592).
The conference is part of the Department of French’s Cambridge French Colloquia series devoted to the ‘”Librairie” de Montaigne’ and will be held from September 2-4.
The University Library is already showcasing its Montaigne collection in an exhibition that opened on August 4 and continues until December 23.
The exhibition, ‘My Booke and My Selfe’: Michel de Montaigne 1533–1592, includes books owned by the writer himself.
Included is a 17th century edition of his Essais which belonged to Napoleon during his exile on St Helena, and copies owned by Ben Jonson and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
The most valuable book is Montaigne’s own copy of Lucretius’ De rerum natura (1563), one of the most frequently cited works in his Essais.
It is covered with Montaigne’s annotations, allowing us to trace in detail how he read and used his source.
Montaigne pioneered the essay form of writing and his Essais speak to us about his education, his sexuality, his friendships, his body, the books he read, his ideas on religion, philosophy and the New World. He was still engaged in annotating a copy of the work in 1592, the year of his death.
Their variety means that they continue to speak to us on questions which are still intensely relevant: from religious conflict to personal integrity.
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