MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE (1533-1592) was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance, known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre, and commonly considered the father of modern skepticism. JOHN FLORIO (1553-1625) was an Anglo-Italian linguist and lexicographer, a royal language tutor at the Court of James I, a possible friend and influence on Shakespeare, and the translator of Montaigne's Essais into English. STEPHEN GREENBLATT is the Cogan University Professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in Vermont. His most recent book, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. PETER PLATT is Professor of English at Barnard College, where he is also the department's chair. He is the author of Shakespeare and the Culture of Paradox and Reason Diminished: Shakespeare and the Marvelous and the editor of Wonders, Marvels, and Monsters in Early Modern Culture.
"""the book is a pleasure in and of its own right. Florio's sinuous, punchy prose is a joy."" The Independent ""exemplary introduction to this exemplary selection of the essays of Montaigne that most influenced Shakespeare"" New Statesman ""beautiful, sonorous, melodious ... even if you already own a translation of Montaigne, you should read this, so you know what he sounded like to his contemporaries."" The Guardian"