| Popis: |
What kind of book was dedicated to what Montaigne describes as a domestic and private end (in ‘Au lecteur’)? Chapter 2.4 offers two case-studies of manuscript life-writing and annotation intended for descendants in times of religious strife. Sir Henry Slingsby, a Yorkshire gentleman caught up in the beginnings of the British civil wars in the 1640s, keeps a book of personal commentaries modelled on Florio’s English Montaigne. Pieter van Veen’s copy of the Essais becomes a personalized emblem book and a ‘Memoire’ of the manner in which its owner (a Catholic) survived the religious troubles without leaving his home. Van Veen lived in The Hague until the 1620s, and has a minor place in the history of Dutch painting; his brother was the more famous Otto van Veen. These examples help us contextualize the Essais as a work of art made for friends and family in specific historical circumstances. |
