ABSTRACT
There are only two important things in Montaigne’s view: his mind and himself. How very modern and audacious Montaigne is when he approaches a taboo subject like sex. He dares to say and to explore and elucidate a good deal more than sixteenth-century authors like Rabelais, Des Periers, Nicholas de Troyes or Brantome. He realizes that the kinds of language that are most important for discussing copulation are unquotable and that language is at its poorest in this area. Human make-up is merely a texture of contradictions, conscious and half-conscious aspects which are continually changing. Montaigne gives us a portrait of man, through a particular individual.
