Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592) was one of the most significant philosophers of the
French Renaissance, known for popularizing the
essay as a
literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with serious intellectual insight; his massive volume
Essais (translated literally as "Attempts" or "Trials") contains some of the most influential essays ever written. Montaigne had a direct influence on writers all over the world, including
Francis Bacon,
René Descartes,
Blaise Pascal,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
Albert Hirschman,
William Hazlitt,
Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Friedrich Nietzsche,
Stefan Zweig,
Eric Hoffer,
Isaac Asimov, and possibly on the later works of
William Shakespeare.