Montaigne
At the Heart of the Essais
In partnership with the Libraries of Bordeaux, this unique experience invites visitors to rediscover Michel de Montaigne and his Essais through a sensitive, vivid and human immersion. Beyond the writer, an entire era, a city and a way of thinking come back to life before their eyes.
Bordeaux, in the second half of the sixteenth century. The Wars of Religion shake the kingdom, yet the city remains a major intellectual hub. It is here, amid political instability and intellectual effervescence, that Montaigne writes the pages that still question our humanity today. Through immersive technologies, visitors become active participants in this reflection, guided by Montaigne’s own voice as he invites them to explore his world, his doubts and his lifelong inner quest.
This reconstruction is grounded in the scientific work of the Libraries of Bordeaux, custodians of the Exemplaire de Bordeaux, a copy of the 1588 edition annotated by Montaigne between 1588 and 1592. This remarkable volume reveals how he corrected, expanded and reshaped his text until his final days. Listed since 2023 in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, it offers a rare and invaluable insight into how Montaigne thought, questioned and continually refined the Essais.
The journey begins in the workshop of the printer Simon Millanges, in the heart of Renaissance Bordeaux. Surrounded by presses and stacks of paper, visitors discover how the first editions of the Essais were produced and even take part in correcting a page before printing.
This scene reveals a work in progress: a manuscript shaped by uncertainty, refined tirelessly and published in haste, driven by the ambition of a new way of thinking.
Through this immersion, an entire craft comes back to life, uniting the hands of a printer and the voice of an author around a single book.
The story continues inside Montaigne’s tower, the intimate space where his thought took form. In this distinctive room lined with books, Montaigne shares his doubts, his influences and his art of questioning.
The experience concludes at the Couvent des Feuillants, before Montaigne’s cenotaph. Here, visitors meet Françoise de La Chassaigne, who sheds light on how the author’s legacy has been interpreted and transmitted through the centuries.
