On this day in 1592 Michel de Montaigne died. Montaigne came from a patrician Bordeaux family, one which obligated him to many political responsibilities, but in his late thirties he retreated to the tower rooms of the family estate to write the first two books of his Essays. When these were published in 1580 -- a third volume was published in 1588 -- they introduced a new literary genre to European letters. ... FULL STORY »
