Shortly before his death in 1568, Montaigne’s father, Pierre Eyquem, had asked his son to translate Theologia naturalis (Book of Creatures or Natural Theology), a book by the Spanish theologian and monk Raymond Sebond. From this experience Montaigne’s produced one of his longest essays, “The Apology for Raymond Sebond," based on the Spaniard’s work. Three years after his father´s death Montaigne decided to leave public life and retired to work in a castle that he had inherited. There he began to work on his main (and only) philosophical work, Essais. This great text was produced in volumes, the first two books, which alone contained 57 and 37 chapters respectively, were published in 1580; the third volume appeared in eight years later.