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University Micrœlm S International INFORMATION TO USERS This was produced from a copy of a document sent to us for microfilming. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the material submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or notations which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or “target” for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is “Missing Page(s)”. If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting through an image and duplicating adjacent pages to assure you of complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a round black mark it is an indication that the film inspector noticed either blurred copy because of movement during exposure, or duplicate copy. 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University M icrœlm s International Lu t o n , Susan Joyce CONCEPTS OF HISTORY IN MONTAIGNE’S "ESSAIS" The Ohio State University University Microfiims i ntern&tionai 300 N. a e b Road. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 CONCEPTS OF HISTORY IN MONTAIGNE'S ESSAIS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Susan J. Litton, M.A. ******** The Ohio State University 1980 Reading Committee; Approved By Robert D. Cottrell Micheline Besnard-Coursodon Adviser ^ Charles G. S. Williams Department of Romance Languages and Literatures ACKNO^ÆEDGMENTS It is a pleasure to thank my adviser. Professor Robert Cottrell, for all the assistance he gave me and all the patience he demonstrated during the preparation of this study. I would also like to thank Professor Charles Williams for his most helpful and sympathetic reading of this work while it was still in draft form. My thanks also go to Professor Micheline Besnard-Coursodon for the many useful comments and suggestions she made upon reading the draft. I owe a special debt of gratitude to two other friends and colleagues; to Cregg Friedberg for his careful and detailed readings of Chapters I, II and IV; and to Claire Carpenter for her stern but bracing and encouraging commentary on early versions of Chapters I and II. 1972 ..................... M.A. in French Literature, The Ohio State University 1973-76 Graduate Teaching Associate, Romance Language Department, The Ohio State University 1976-77 Graduate Research Associate, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, The Ohio State University Fall 1977 ............... Lecturer in French, Newark Branch Campus of The Ohio State University TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................ il VITA ..................................................... ill INTRODUCTION .............................................. 1 Chapter I. REVIEW OF SCHOLARSHIP.............................. 13 II. MONTAIGNE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF HISTORICAL CRITICISM . 54 The First Stage: Cornelius Agrippa and Francesco Patrizzi ............................. 58 The Second Stage: Melchor Cano and François Baudouin .............................. 71 The Third Stage: Jean B o d i n ....................... 80 III. MONTAIGNE AND THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN.HISTORIOGRAPHY . 97 Montaigne and Secular History ..................... 100 Montaigne and Historical Process ................... 118 IV. MONTAIGNE'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE..................... 137 The Early Essays (1572-74) ......................... 141 The Essays of 1578-80 161 V. MONTAIGNE'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE .................... 185 The 1588 Edition.................................. 185 The Final Additions to the E s s a i s ................. 205 CONCLUSION................................................ 221 BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................. 237 INTRODUCTION It is well known that history figured prominently in Montaigne's favorite reading-matter. Twice in the Essais he says so himself,^ and of the 271 books which can be assumed to have been in his posses­ sion, 87, or just less than one third, are histories.^ Moreover, his views on the usefulness of history are to be found in two of the most widely-read chapters of the Essais, "De l'institution des enfans" and "Des livres." In perhaps the best-known chapter of all, "De l'institution des enfans," Montaigne gives the study of history great importance in the young nobleman's intellectual formation. Although a practical education is stressed and the pupil is to leam by observing how people act in real life, nevertheless, en cette practique des hommes, j'entends y comprendre, et principalement, ceux qui ne vivent qu'en la mémoire des livres. [L'élève] practiquera, par le moyen des histoires, ces grandes ames des meilleurs siècles. C'est un vain estude, qui veut; mais qui veut aussi, c'est un estude de fruit inestimable (emphasis is mine).^ Biographies are seen as particularly valuable: "Quel profit ne fera-il History can, Montaigne admits, be dry: "A d'aucuns c'est un pur estude grammairien."^ But for those who know better it is essential reading, the source of our knowledge of man's psychological make-up. For these readers history is "1'anatomie de la philosophie, en laquelle well as psychological insights can be found in history if it is well presented to the pupil: que mon guide se souvienne où vise sa charge; et qu'il n'imprime pas tant à son disciple la date de la ruine de Carthage que les meurs de Hannibal et de Scipion, ny tant où mourut Marcellus, que pourquoi il fut indigne de son devoir qu'il mourut là. In keeping with the rest of Montaigne's educational philosophy, then, history is not to be seen as a source of facts for the young nobleman to leam, but as an area for the training of his judgment: "qu'[on] ne lui apprenne pas tant les histoires qu'à en juger. If this is Montaigne's stated theory of the use of history, how does he describe his personal practice? Except for the last element, the training of judgment, the two are very similar. In the chapter "Des livres," begun at approximately the same time as "De 1'institution droitte bale";^^ no longer envisaging the unwilling scholar learning his dates, he claims that "ils sont plaisans et aysez."^^ Again history is seen as a source of psychological and moral knowledge: 1'homme en general, de qui je cherche la cognoissance, y paroist plus vif et plus entier qu'en nul autre lieu, la diversité et vérité de ses conditions en gros et en destail, la variété des moyens de son assemblage et des accidens qui le menacent.12 As before, biographies are preferred: Or ceux qui escrivent les vies, d'autant qu'ils s'amusent plus aux conseils qu'aux evenemens, plus à ce qui part du dedans qu'à ce qui arrive au dehors, ceux là me sont propres 13 3 If the parallel between the two sections is not complete and the value of history for the formation of judgment is not stressed here, it is because Montaigne presents himself in this chapter as the curious but capricious and forgetful reader. He adopts the same tonality at the beginning of "De 1'institution des enfans" in a passage that remains separate from the serious matter of discussing another person's education. With fairly gentle irony history is presented here as the light reading enjoyed by the dilettante who is incapable of more sus­ tained study: de m'estre ronge les ongles à 1'estude d'Aristote, monarque de la doctrine moderne, ou opiniastrê après quelque science, je ne l'ay jamais faict. l'histoire c'est plus mon gibier, ou la poesie . History is thus presented as fascinating reading which provides useful— even inspiring— insights into human behaviour. The same views are evi­ dent when we consider the works Montaigne wishes had been left to us by the past. He wishes that the words of the dying Seneca had been recorded,that there had been more biographers like Diogenes Laertius,and that there were memoirs of Plutarch's life.^^ He wishes that someone of the intellectual stature of the great German humanist Justus Lipsius (with whom he corresponded) would write a history of the ancient philosophies.^® There is also a sharp sense that much of the past has been lost. He regrets the zeal of the early Christians who destroyed many non- Christian works: "J'estime que ce desordre ait plus porte de nuysance aux lettres que tout les feux des barbares.In fact, most human actions are soon forgotten: "Les fortunes de plus de la moitié du monde, à faute de registre, ne bougent de leur place, et s'évanouissent sans d u r é e . This sense of loss exists on the personal level also. as assiduous in keeping
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