Volusenus, FLORENTIUS

Volusenus, FLORENTIUS (Florence Wilson, or Wolsey), a distinguished Scottish humanist, was born near Elgin at the opening of the 16th century. Having received his early education in Scotland (probably at Aberdeen), he seems to have proceeded to the university of Paris. Like his contemporary and personal friend George Buchanan, he cultivated classical learning in preference to the logic and philosophy of the schoolmen, and attained a mastery of Latin which gives him a place with the first scholars of his time. After acting as tutor to a son (spoken of as a nephew) of Cardinal Wolsey, he eventually became principal of a school at Carpentras, near Avignon, a position he owed to the favour of Cardinal Sadoleto. In 1546, on his way home to Scotland, Volusenus (we have no authority for the name Wilson) died at Vienne in Dauphiné, lameuted by Buchanan in a Latin quatrain, which proves the strength of their friendship. His chief work is his De Animī Tranquillitate, written in the purest classical Latin, every page of which reveals the essential refinement and moral beauty of his nature. See Irving, Lives of Scottish Writers, and The Bannatyne Club Miscellany, vol. i.