Emile, or On Education is a treatise on the nature of education and on the nature of man written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who considered it to be the "best and most important" of all his writings. Due to a section of the book entitled "Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar", Emile was banned in Paris and Geneva and was publicly burned in 1762, the year of its first publication. It was forbidden by the Church being listed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. During the French Revolution, Emile served as the inspiration for what became a new national system of education.
Title page of Rousseau's Emile
Rousseau
Frontispiece to Rousseau's Émile by De Launay for the 1782 edition. The original caption reads: "L'éducation de l'homme commence à sa naissance" ("A man's education begins at birth").
Title page from a German edition of Émile
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher (philosophe), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the development of modern political, economic, and educational thought.
1753 portrait
The house where Rousseau was born at number 40, Grand-Rue, Geneva
Les Charmettes, where Rousseau lived with Françoise-Louise de Warens from 1735 to 1736, now a museum dedicated to Rousseau
Françoise-Louise de Warens
