Etienne de La Boetie (1530-1563), . French writer and humanist, he studied law at the Université dʼOrléans. His early interest in the Greek classics led him to translate Xenophon and Plutarch. After participating in the negotiations for civil peace in the religious wars of the 16th century, he wrote Mémoire sur la pacification des troubles. However, it is thanks to the Huguenot impetus that we know today his first and main work, The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude or Contra uno, a manuscript that fascinated Michel de Montaigne. The two struck up a strong friendship that would transcend La Boétie's death, with Montaigne becoming his accidental executor. La Boétie was a volunteer servant of public order, and could be considered the intellectual precursor of libertarian thought. He died of the plague in the commune of Germignan.