To be Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron of La Brède and of Montesquieu by Stefano Donno

Montesquieu (1689-1755) was a French philosopher and political thinker, whose ideas had a significant influence on the development of political theory and the Enlightenment. He is best known for his work "The Spirit of the Laws," published in 1748, in which he argues for the separation of powers in government and the protection of individual rights. He believed that the power of government should be divided into three branches: the legislative, the executive, and the judicial, in order to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful and to protect individual liberty. Montesquieu's ideas on the separation of powers and the protection of individual rights were influential in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He is considered one of the most important political theorists of the Enlightenment period.