author
J.-F. (Jean-François) Payen
1800–1870
A 19th-century French doctor and man of letters, he is best remembered for digging up rare documents on Montaigne and La Boétie. His work helped preserve and clarify key texts from the French Renaissance for later readers.
1 Audiobook
Notice bio-bibliographique sur La Boëtie, suivie de La Servitude volontaire
by J.-F. (Jean-François) Payen, Estienne de La Boétie
About the author
Born in Paris on July 24, 1800, Jean-François Payen was a French physician and scholar. Sources describe him as a doctor, a learned bibliophile, and a specialist in the work of Michel de Montaigne.
Alongside his medical career, he devoted himself to literary research and historical editing. He published studies and previously little-known documents about Montaigne, and he also worked on Étienne de La Boétie, helping bring important Renaissance writings back into circulation.
Payen died in Paris on February 7, 1870. He is remembered less as a novelist or poet than as a careful editor and literary investigator whose curiosity helped preserve the record of earlier French authors.