Corpo, salute e animali negli Essais di Michel de Montaigne

In the pages ofthe Essais, the body is omnipresent. It is a vast and complex theme, and one of themost discussed by scholars. This paper aims to investigate the theme of the body in itsrelationship with health, a key concept in the Essais. In this regard, the ultimate models to follow in achieving health seem to be animals, as they are capable of listening totheir bodies and the voice of nature. The guiding question of this study is the following: given that attaining health requires following nature, is the naturiste path - namely, the way of life of animals - the privileged route indicated by Montaigne? Or does ithave its limitations? The proposed hypothesis is that this path appears inaccessible tohumans and that Montaigne instead seems to point to the exercise of judgment as thetrue gateway to health and wisdom. [Publisher's text]