A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Gournay, Mary de Jars, Lady of
GOURNAY, MARY DE JARS, LADY OF,
A French woman of wit and learning, was related to several noble families in Paris, but born in Gascony, in 1565. She had a strong turn for literature, and was so delighted with Montaigne's Essays, that, on her father's death, she adopted Montaigne in his stead, even before she had seen him. When he was at Paris in 1588, she visited him, and prevailed on him to pass two or three months with her and her mother, the Lady Gournay. Mademoiselle de Jars became so wedded to books in general, and Montaigne's Essays in particular, that she resolved never to have any other associate. Nor was Montaigne ungrateful for her admiration. He foretold, in his second book of Essays, that she would be capable of first-rate productions. The connection was carried through the family. Montaigne's daughter, the Viscountess de Jamaches, always claimed Mademoiselle de Jars as a sister. In 1634, after Montaigne's death, she revised and re-printed an edition of his Essays, with a preface, full of the strongest expressions of devotion to his memory.
She published a volume of prose and verse in 1636, called "Les Avis et les Presens de la Demoiselle de Gournal." She was never married, but received a small pension from the court. She died in 1645, at Paris.