I have naturally a [comique] and [privé ] style...I hate men base in deeds but wise in words.Although we have many examples of men, contemporary to Montaigne, who claim to write about their private lives, few of them satisfy our curiosity about the state of intimate life in the French Renaissance. For example, in Blaise de Monluc's Commentaires, his vision of recounting his inner self means, as he writes, detailing the "honor and reputation... [he] acquired... by force of arms."3 Similarly, (...) each subject in Théodore de Bèze's Les Vrais portraits des hommes illustres is painted in a more public light. Kings and military leaders reach the "summit of knowledge" and "glory," "surpassing all. (shrink)

This book rethinks Montaigne’s philosophical thought in terms of transversality by investigating the essayist’s debt to ancient life writers Diogenes Laertius and Plutarch. Its scope is of interest to scholars of ancient and early modern life writing, ancient and early modern philosophy, as well as scholars of early modern literary history.