French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Legros, Montaigne manuscrit
Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Alain Legros, Montaigne manuscrit

Paris: Classiques Garnier, coll. "Études montaignistes", 2010.

EAN13: 9782812400988.

Price: 89EUR
838 p.
Publisher's overview:

A diplomatic edition of all surviving autograph manuscripts (excluding the Bordeaux Copy), complete with translations, explanations, and commentaries. It features ex-libris inscriptions, presentation inscriptions, youthful mottoes, notes from Beuther, parliamentary decrees, and reading notes—including previously unpublished notes from a newly discovered copy of Terence—along with letters and dedications. The illustrations trace the constants and evolutions of Montaigne's ductus over some forty years, written in Latin, French, and occasionally Greek and Italian.

Diplomatic edition of all the surviving autograph writings (except the exemplaire de Bordeaux), with translations, explanations and commentaries.

* * *

Alain Legros contributes a meticulous scholarly resource by gathering surviving autograph materials beyond the famous Bordeaux Copy of the Essais. This volume presents presentation inscriptions, youthful mottoes, parliamentary decrees, and extensive reading notes, including discoveries such as marginalia from a newly found copy of Terence. By examining these diverse texts, the collection illuminates the private and public writing habits of one of the towering figures of French Renaissance humanism, offering scholars direct access to the physical reality of his multilingual compositions in Latin, French, Greek, and Italian.

The inclusion of detailed illustrations allows researchers to trace the evolution of Michel de Montaigne's handwriting and ductus across four decades of intellectual activity. This comprehensive overview serves literary historians, paleographers, and specialists in early modern philosophy who seek to understand the genesis of Montaigne's thought and the mechanics of sixteenth-century reading practices. It is an indispensable reference for academic libraries and advanced researchers investigating the material culture of the French Renaissance and the transmission of humanist texts.

This work inspired an article by B. Sève on the website laviedesidees.fr: "La main de Montaigne".