Bodin, Montaigne and the Role of Disciplinary Boundaries

Abstract

Michel de Montaigne (1533-92) and Jean Bodin (1529-96) were contemporaries, compatriots and colleagues. Both served as officers in the Parlements, Montaigne as a counselor in Bordeaux and Bodin as a barrister in Paris. They both ended up dissatisfied with their lives at the center of public activity and withdrew from the political fray. Montaigne retired to his family estate, while Bodin earned a living as a royal officer in the provincial town of Laon. Both owe their considerable fame, at the time and since, to their prolific writing during this period. But, at least at first view, their writings seem so strikingly different in tone as to belie any similarities of cultural context.