ProQuest Dissertations - The University of Arizona Campus Repository

noted by various critics. They are unique. They are neither a
philosophical nor a legal treatise, but an attempt to present
the reality of the times and his own reality. To understand
Montaigne's point of view it is necessary to be acquainted
with some basic assumptions, which would have been accepted or
rejected at that time; with modes of reasoning, discourse and
rhetoric, and with some of the historical events which
occurred.
The concept of coustume in the Essais is in
opposition to that of Roman law, considered written law, based
upon a priori principles, whose authority depended as much
upon the commentaries as upon the law itself. It was the
customary law of Italy. Coustume includes equitable or
jurisprudential law as practiced particularly in Guyenne, and
as was practiced in England. In general is a common law of a
particular region or pays, but in Guyenne common law was
considered apart from the coustume. The coustumes were not
taught in the universities, but were the subject of
commentaries. Provincial coustumes had been codified in some
cases, and a Code inspired by Roman Law was a principal
interest of Francis Hotman (Giesey, 1967, p. 599 ff.)
The interpretation of the law as it was taught and
practiced, depended upon the commentaries or treatises of
learned doctors from the Middle Ages to the present. The
desire was to return to the law itself, as distinct from the
26