LA BOÉTIE, ESTIENNE de. — French writer, born in Sarlat on 1 September 1530, died at Germignan (Bordeaux) on 18 August 1563. A counsellor at the Parliament of Bordeaux, a poet and humanist of Stoic inclinations, and a translator of Xenophon and Plutarch, La B. was almost ignored by his contemporaries during his brief life, but after his death he had the good fortune to find in Montaigne a devoted and scrupulous editor of his work (v. Montaigne, Essais, I, XXVII and XXVIII).
Twenty-nine French sonnets, among the most exquisite of their time, several Latin verses, and the translations from the Greek were in fact published in 1671 with a preface by Montaigne. This was followed in 1576 by the publication of Discours de la servitude volontaire ou le Contr'un, rich in classical references and libertarian and republican ideas, which were to be the subject of considerable discussion even much later.