In recent years, much discussion of Michel de Montaigne’s Essais has gravitated toward the chapter “Of Friendship” (De l’amitié). This chapter remains one of Montaigne’s most influential philosophical interventions, and it gathers its force from the French author’s close relationship with judge and writer Etienne de la Boétie. In “Of Friendship,” Montaigne surveys a variety of philosophical stances on friendship, commenting along the way on topics including pederasty and marriage, and citing extensively from classical sources. Scholars including Laurie Shannon and Marc Schachter have addressed this essay in broader investigations of Renaissance friendship and in conjunction with the classically-derived notions of askesis and “technologies of the self,” which Michel Foucault discussed late in his career. Indeed, Foucault’s 1981 interview “Friendship as a Way of Life” has inspired numerous scholars to further examine the queer potentialities of friendship and what he articulated as “a manner of being that is still improbable.” The work of Schachter and others shows how the early French editions of Montaigne’s Essais already present useful ways to investigate the relationships between technologies of textual production, friendship, selfhood, and askesis.

This essay, however, will focus on the book’s first English rendition by John Florio and its paratextual apparatus: dedications, commendatory verses, epistles to the reader, and the woodcuts that accompany them. First published in 1603, Florio’s Montaigne has been recognized by critics as an eminent example of early modern translation and is known for its influence upon poets and playwrights including, but certainly not limited to Shakespeare. Although critics such as Jonathan Goldberg typically turn to this book’s preliminaries with an eye toward Florio’s comments on translation, closer study reveals that this paratext also sets forth a variety of human relationships through both the technology of print and the language of Renaissance friendship. Goldberg already finds in this paratextual apparatus “complex paths of crossed—gendercrossed— destination” and “paths of possibility” for women and for (male) translators. I want to examine these paths of possibility in greater detail.

With Foucault’s notion of askesis in mind, I will argue that the Essayes’ paratext evinces a relationship between technologies of the self and technologies of textual production among early modern writers and readers.