Editing Florentius Volusenus (section)

==Work==
Volusenus's linguistic studies embraced [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] as well as [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Latin]]. His reputation, however, rests on the beautiful dialogue, ''De Animi Tranquillitate'', first printed by [[S. Gryphius]] at Lyon in 1543. From internal evidence it appears to have been composed about that time, but the subject had exercised the writer for many years. The dialogue shows us [[Christian humanism]] at its best. Volusenus is a great admirer of [[Erasmus]], but he criticises the purity of his [[Latin]] and also his philosophy.<ref name="EB1911"/>

His own philosophy is Christian and Biblical rather than classical or scholastic. He takes a fresh and independent view of [[Christian ethics]], and he ultimately reaches a [[doctrine]] as to the witness of the Spirit and the assurance of grace which breaks with the traditional Christianity of his time and is based on ethical motives akin to those of the [[German Reformers]]. The verses which occur in the dialogue, and the poem which concludes it, give Volusenus a place among Scottish Latin poets, but it is as a Christian philosopher that he attains distinction.<ref name="EB1911"/>

The dialogue was reissued at Leiden in 1637 by the Scots writer [[David Echlin]], whose poems, with a selection of three poems from the dialogue of Volusenus, appear, with others, in the famous [[Amsterdam]] collection ''Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum hujus'' and printed by [[Johannes Blaeu]] in 2 vols. in 1637. Later editions of the dialogue appeared at Edinburgh in 1707 and 1751 (the latter edited by [[G. Wishart]]). All the reissues contain a short life of the author by Thomas Wilson, advocate, son-in-law and biographer of [[Archbishop]] [[Patrick Adamson]]. Supplementary facts are found in the letters and state papers of the period, and in Sadolet's ''Letters''.<ref name="EB1911"/>