Montaigne's Annotated Copy of Lucretius : a transcription and study of the manuscript notes and pen-marks

A must for students of Montaigne (and Lucretius). The surfacing of Montaigne's Lucretius is a major event : all the flyleaves bear dense comments in Latin; the margins have numerous pen marks, a few Latin and a great many French notes. Montaigne studied the poem intensely. Its sexual morality influenced him as author and as man. We surprise the germ of Sur des vers de Virgile; the most frequent French comment is Contre la religion. Montaigne's notes are transcribed, and the Latin translated : the pen marks are listed (they reveal what arrested Montaigne's as he reacted to the poem, quill in hand). An account is given of the discovery of this exciting copy. Une découverte exceptionnelle que ce texte de Lucrèce entièrement annoté de la main de Montaigne! Les remarques et commentaires, la plupart en français, jusqu'aux traces de sa plume traînante dans les marges, indiquent les réactions de Montaigne face au poème et précisent quelques fondements de sa pensée.

Extraits d'un article paru dans "The Times Literary Supplement" du 26 mars 99: "M.A. Screech's anecdote about the recent discovery of Montaigne's annotated copy of Lucretius (...) and his relish in being commissioned to transcribe it, set the engagingly personal tone for the quirky and emphatically umpedantic work of reference. (...) In "his" book, Screech has obligingly done our homework for us so that "each reader can have the pleasure of judging" how Montaigne read Lucretius. In the end, it is as much of a pleasure to observe Screech reading Montaigne". by Yasmin Haskell