The Design of Montaigne's Essais (Oxford Modern Languages and Literature Monographs)

What can design tell us about literature? What can literature tell us about design? The Design of Montaigne's 'Essais' provides a model for answering these questions by analysing the uses and function of the termdessein.Wresting design free from its intentionalist connotations and focusing instead on the polysemy of the term in its early modern usage, which connoted both a mental plan or intention, and a material drawing or sketch, this study emphasises the open-ended design of the Essais, placing particular importance on its affinities with the practice of sketching.Looking across the Italian border at theories and practices of drawing, the book places Montaigne's dessein in dialogue with its Italian counterpart disegno, arguing for the importance of the visual dimension in Montaigne's thinking, and in his writerly imagination.The dynamism and restlessness of dessein allow us to reconsider the visual metaphors used by Montaigne to characterise the project of the Essais in light of the