“Fabricated of his own invention” On the double biomimesis of Essays II, 9 and II, 12

“Si les animaux se forgent des dieus […] ils les forgent certainement de mesme eux.” This metaphor continues the rejection earlier in the Apologie of a conception of the human as a unique animal : “le seul […] n’ayant dequoy s’armer et couvrir que de la despouille d’autruy”. Following a ferruginous thread, this article proposes a link between the animal armour of II, 12 and the martial mimicry of “Des Armes des Parthes” and rethinks, with Montaigne, both biomimesis and anthropocentrism.