• 1 Friends and colleagues have generously helped with a number of these alba entries, with particular (...)

1The historical connection between Scotland and France goes a long way back and can be traced to the ‘Auld Alliance’ at least in a formal militaro-diplomatic sense. This link encouraged, but also merely existed in parallel with, ad hoc and more informal exchanges visible in trade and education. The historiography of the ties between the two nations has blossomed since Michel’s early work on the topic in the second half of the nineteenth century (Michel 1862). More recently, scholars have deepened our understanding of the nature of that relation by exploring the military service of Scots in France or their commercial ventures and businesses there to name but a few (Glozier 2004; Talbott 2016).

• 2 Klose 2001, showing that an analysis of 1,556 alba of the sixteenth century containing 24,139 entri (...)
• 3 See for instance Courant 2012; and on feminine relationships Reinders 2016.

2French scholars have not paid much attention to alba amicorum as a source in general. Part of the reason must lie in the fact that the custom of album-keeping was predominantly foreign. There were relatively few Frenchmen who did so in comparison to the Germans, Dutchmen, and Scandinavians (Nickson 1989).2 But there is a growing interest on that theme amongst the French academic community, spearheaded by the livres d’amitié’s correlated scholarship, that of emblem studies (Boureau 1987; Cazes 2001, 2015; Adams 2003). In conjunction, the engouement for our modern social media has prompted a research drive into older forms of social networks and of relating. Friendship books have been a key component of that modelling over the long term.3

• 4 The present writer has failed to uncover any entry made by Scottish women within this French contex (...)

3Two good introductions on alba are now available in French, including by one of the leading world experts in the field (Ludwig 2008; Balsamo 2019). They discuss the tradition of album-keeping and trace its evolution from its German origin and its expansion across northern and eastern Europe. As a genre itself, alba emerged in the mid-sixteenth century (1540s) in Germany and more particularly within the student communities at Protestant universities there. However, the practice soon spread to Catholic institutions and also beyond the student world. The practice was particularly marked amongst students during their tour of European universities collecting encomia from fellow students, teachers, and local potentates, thus truly grounding the genre in the apodemic culture. It rapidly expanded (still in the sixteenth century) geographically and was embraced in the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and parts of Eastern Europe. Socially also, a greater diversity of people took to collecting signatures be they teachers, officials, musicians, soldiers, clergymen, physicians, or craftsmen. A number of women, especially from the gentry and nobility, possessed their own albums.4 Dutch scholars have been at the forefront of research on women’s alba. The practice of album-keeping developed more or less simultaneously among male and female owners and women took the idea from each other, though some might have been influenced by looking at the album kept by their male relatives. Women’s alba varied from men’s in that they reflected women’s lesser propensity to travel, spending a long time in the family home or visiting relatives. As a result, women’s friendship albums were used more as guestbooks and/or personal songbooks, depicting the female networks of family, friends and acquaintances who came to visit occasionally or regularly the family home as opposed to men’s alba recording brief encounters when travelling. The world of women’s alba is one of closer contacts and/or house guests (Delen 1989; Reinders 2016).

• 5 Cairns 2015, pp. xiv-xv, 17, 65, 75-81; Cairns 1994, 178-83; Cairns 1998, 168-70; Watt and Murray, (...)

6The presence of Scottish students in France has long been noted and draws upon solid yet scattered scholarly work. But at times, this tertiary education of Scots in France, whether in terms of students or professors, can appear confessionally delineated (Tucker Professeurs et régents; McInally 2012). At some level, alba help bridge relationships between the confessional divide. The appearance of a William Skene in Bourges in 1557/8 in a friendship album makes him one of the earliest Scots on record within the genre. Skene was the second son of notary James Skene in Bandodle (in Aberdeenshire) and Janet Lumsden. In 1540, Skene was admitted a notary by the bishop of Aberdeen and in 1549 entered King’s College, Aberdeen, as a theology student. In all likelihood, Skene obtained his licence in both the laws at Bourges. In March 1556/7 or afterwards, he was incorporated into St Mary’s College, St Andrews, and later became professor of law at St Andrews from 1558 until his death in 1582. He rapidly embraced the Protestant faith. On several occasions, Skene was elected dean of the university’s faculty of arts (1565, 1578-81). His legal acumen and robust academic education were sought after and he acted before various courts as procurator and consultant.5

• 6 The Emblemata edition of 1557 apparently appeared in the first months of the year, for the buyer of (...)
• 7 Douglas was re-elected rector on 29 February 1551/2 and continued to hold the office without furthe (...)
• 8 Skene’s name appears first on Douglas’ list. His lists of students might not have been compiled chr (...)

8Among these new acquaintances was William Skene. In Marcus’s Stammbuch, Skene’s entry is undated. However, Marcus’ use of the 1557 edition of Alciato’s Emblemata means that signatories were only able to inscribe it after that date.6 Also, it is worth bearing in mind that Skene’s matriculation in St Mary’s College occurred during John Douglas’ seventh rectorship, which ran from late February/early March 1556/7 to late February/early March 1557/8.7 This means that Skene would have signed Marcus’s album on 27 April 1557, like many fellow students, or thereafter and returned shortly afterwards to Scotland prior to late February/early March 1558.8 The fact that the inscriptions on the leaves were made only after their insertion into the book rules out the possibility that Marcus already had Skene’s earlier signature at hand. Once in Scotland, Skene does not seem to have left the country again, nor is Marcus on record to have ever visited it for that matter.

• 9 “ex asse tuus”.
• 10 “Adde catis mures mulieris co[m]prime lingua[m] qua[m] cesset n[ost]rae zelus amicitiae”. The autho (...)

9Skene’s contribution is not related to any emblem or text in the book but rather faced Alciato’s preface addressed to Conrad Peutinger of Augsburg found in Alciato’s book of emblems. Skene seems to have deliberately entered himself on the white sheet that precedes the emblems per se and may have been asked to do so. This position in the volume obviously denotes a place of honour. On the page, “gulielmus Skene[u]s Scotus” signed off with the Latin for “all yours”9 and left a protestation of friendship. He used either directly or indirectly a shorter variation on an epigram of French Renaissance humanist scholar and rhetoric professor Jean Tixier de Ravisi. Stereotype is apparent in the choice of this elegiac couplet in that “You can place mice in among cats and restrain a woman’s tongue sooner than the ardour of our friendship will abate” (Private collection, Stammbuch des Josias Marcus, fo. 3r).10

• 11 Schachman kept a separate album during his travels, distinct from this Gdańsk one he possessed duri (...)
• 12 “Initium Sapientiae timor Domini”. Günther, ‘Westpreußische Stammbücher’, 45-50, and p. 48 for Both (...)

11However, unknown to Scottish historians is the fact that whilst on the continent Bothwell actually travelled east. In April 1582, he was in Strasbourg. There, the Scot befriended Bartholomaus Schachman. Born in Gdańsk in 1559 to Caspar Schachman, a councillor of the Right Main City, the chief authority in Gdańsk, and Elisabeth Brandt, the daughter of the city’s mayor, Bartholomaus received an excellent education locally. He polished it off abroad in Strasbourg (1582), Basel (1586-7), and Siena (1588), travelling extensively in Europe, the Middle East (1588-9) and North Africa, as disclosed by his album amicorum, which he began in 1580, and a separate travel album. Schachman returned to his home city and settled down as an art patron, a city councillor (1594) and city mayor (1605) until his death in 1614 (Nefedova and Frąckowska 2012, 41-61).11 As with Marcus’ Stammbuch, Schachman’s album reveals contacts with both the Catholic and Protestant milieus (Pietrzyk 1999, 140-4). Leaving Poland, he was most likely drawn to Strasbourg because of its renowned Protestant school. There, on 20 April 1582, “franciscus Steuardus Comes A Bothuell Scotus” put pen to paper and advised his reader in the words of the Latin incipit of Psalm 111:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Polska Akademia Nauk Biblioteka Gdańska, MS 2501, fo. 12r).12

• 13 Shearman 1955; Halloran 2003, 11-16; McCoog 2002, 145-54, 178; Anderson 1906, 3.

12Protestant Bothwell’s tumultuous career can be matched by that of Catholic Alexander Macquhirrie. Born around 1557, he was the son of Edinburgh burgess Gilbert Macquhirrie and Jonet Cornwall, matriculating at St Salvator’s College in St Andrews in 1575 and graduating two years later. In 1583, he undertook to further his studies at Pont-à-Mousson. As a secular priest, he returned to Scotland with fellow priest William Crichton in 1587 just after the latter’s release from the Tower of London. Macquhirrie entered the Jesuit novitiate in France in 1588 and visited his native Scotland in 1592 and was back to the continent by 1594. Resolute in his faith and despite threats and deprivation, the missionary travelled back to Scotland in late 1596/early 1597 where he worked to advance the needs of the Scottish Jesuit mission. The repressive Scottish environment in which Macquhirrie operated meant that he adopted a series of aliases for his work, such as John Burnett, John Black and Robert Dickson. He ultimately died in Scotland in 1606.13

• 14 On the two types of alba, manuscripts and interleaved printed works, read Nickson 1970, 9-13; Schna (...)

13Whilst in France, the Scotsman befriended a fellow student from Germany. Cologne youth Christian Wickrath (Wickrodt) has not left much trace for his biography. In his early years, he travelled to France and registered at the University of Orléans in August 1582. In the following year (1583), he visited Paris but also returned to Orléans. He ultimately settled back in Cologne where he became a local councillor (Ridderikhoff, Ridder-Symoens, and Heesakkers 2013, 452; Schieckel 1986, 21-2). Wickrath’s album is interesting in that it shows the alternative early alba tradition, namely to use printed works and interleave these with blank pages to gather signatures.14 In Wickrath’s case, however, the title of the work cannot be identified. Yet the Scots present in the album actually expand our knowledge of its contents and, almost undoubtedly, point to Wickrath having travelled to Pont-à-Mousson. Indeed, the few pages found nowadays in the archives at Oldenburg must be but a fragment of Wickrath’s former album or alba as can be seen from his other loose sheets (Klose 1988, 122).

• 15 “virtus repulsae nescia sordidae intaminatis fulget honoribus nec ponit aut sumit secures Arbitrio (...)

14Macquhirrie signed his entry in 1583 and although unlocated, it seems very likely that it was in Pont-à-Mousson where he was a student at the Scots College at the time. The “Edinburgensis Scotus” sought his inspiration in Horace’s Odes recommending unfailing courage/virtue in that “a man’s true worth does not acknowledge a demeaning rebuff, but shines forth with its glory undimmed; it does not take up or lay down the axes of authority at the people’s whim” (Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv, Best. 297 J Nr. 7, fo. 11r).15

• 16 Anderson 1906, 2; Bryce and Roberts 1997, 906; Ross 1972, 41; Tayler 1987, 297. For Douai’s attract (...)
• 17 “Tota licet veteres exornent vndique cerae / Atria, nobilitas sola est atque vnica virtus”; Juvenal (...)

15Similarly, although undated and unlocated, William Forbes’ contribution to Wickrath’s volume can be associated with that of Macquhirrie as it turned out that William Forbes was a fellow student at Pont-à-Mousson, having entered the novitiate there in 1582, that is a year before Macquhirrie. Forbes was known as William Forbes of Corsindae. He ultimately left the college without proceeding to the priesthood and changed course and became a trader in Scotland. The family however continued to patronize the Scots College at Douai in the mid-seventeenth century and his relative, James Forbes, although entering the Jesuit college in Rome in 1602 became a Dominican.16 When presented with the German’s album, William Forbes “Marrianus Scotus” reminisced about Juvenal as he penned the following elegiac couplet, sourcing the fount of true virtue and nobility governing an individual’s life in oneself: “Though you adorn your entire atrium with ancient wax portraits in every direction, the one and only nobility is personal excellence” (Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv, Best. 297 J Nr. 7, fo. 19r).17

• 18 Mijers 2012, 69-70; Sweet, Verhoeven, and Goldsmith 2017, 48, 55, 85, 90, 92-3, 95-6; Ridder-Symoen (...)

16Contrary to some expectations, the relations built among students might not have been cultivated over years of university curricula but during a somewhat much more limited period, illustrating a widespread phenomenon within the early-modern peregrinatio academica, namely attending some classes without matriculating or graduating or alternatively enrolling shortly before graduating.18 From these Scottish entries, the youthful camaraderie appears to have been enjoyed over a shorter duration without precluding their true sentiments of friendship or their intensity, whether these relationships were merely superficial or deeply felt as in Skene’s case whose contribution’s prime position in the book seems to indicate. Indeed, this affinity was not ruled out on the basis of religious persuasion, underlining a heartfelt common student fellowship binding these individuals.

• 19 Darcel 1859, 90; Ridderikhoff, Ridder-Symoens, and Heesakkers 2013, 633, 635; BNF, Latin 11398, fos (...)
• 20 Colin was back in Paris in April 1586.
• 21 “παρ’ ἐλπίδος ἐπ’ ἐλπίδα”; “Quantulacunque damus tibi pignora, magna putato / Parua licet, nam sint (...)

18During his short tenure at the Collège de Boncourt, Crichton taught students but also received visits from other academic colleagues, including one Valère Colin. Colin studied in Orléans and became a doctor of both laws. Thereafter, he resorted to Arras where he entered into the service of the powerful Sainte-Aldegonde-Noircames noble family, as tutor to the young Maximilian, baron of Rieulay and later governor of Arras. Whilst still in his youth, Colin embarked on an educational tour to accompany his protégé. Between 1583 and 1586, the pair visited France, Italy, and Spain.19 Contrary to previous statements, Colin was not from Orléans but actually from Ghent as revealed through his album. After this scholarly peregrination, Colin returned to France and seemingly became regent at the University of Paris but met an untimely death by 1590 (BNF, Latin 11398, fo. 18r; Bacquet 37). It was in these circumstances that the pair met George Crichton at Collège de Boncourt. Although not dated, the meeting must have taken place in September-October 1585 and in all likelihood around 15-17 October, given the other contributions in the album especially from Crichton’s colleagues at the Collège.20 “Georgius Crichtonius” noted in Greek “from hope to hope”, perhaps in a dialogic interaction with Romans 4:18. The lettered Scot freely added an elegiac couplet of his own composition in Latin: “No matter how small the tokens of love I give you, think them to be great. For although they may be small, my love is huge” (BNF, Latin 11398, fo. 33r).21

• 22 His brother, Edward Scot, studied medicine at Montpellier (1598-1600) and died at Dôle prior to 161 (...)

19Crichton’s co-religionist Alexander Scot hailed from Aberdeenshire, being the son of George Scot of Kininmonth and Margaret Fraser, daughter of the Philorth chief. After his instruction at home by Jesuit priest Edmund Hay, Alexander attended the local King’s College and graduated M.A. From there, he left Scotland for religious reasons along with his brother Edward and the pair resorted to France for studies. Alexander continued his education, initially theology at Tournon (on the Rhone River) then taught by Scot Jesuit John Hay. Alexander Scot returned to Scotland but fell foul of the Kirk session for his Catholicism and entertaining priests in his home. Following a fracas with the local minister, Scot fled through England back to France. His interest then turned to law which he studied in Bourges (c. 1580-84) under the renowned French legal humanist Jacques Cujas. After his doctorate in both laws, Scot set out to publish scholarly works in Latin and Greek, such as Ciceronian literature and a Greek grammar book in the late 1580s-early 1590s. The period also saw in print his thesaurus for lawyers, Vocabularium utriusque juris (1591). In May 1594, he settled in Carpentras as principal regent of the college. Having left the college by 1608, he took up a post as an ordinary judge and presided over the town’s council. In addition, he worked as advocate and general procurator of diocesan works. The latter post he still held at his death in 1616 (Kennedy 1906, 242-3; Durkan 2002, 120-4).22

• 23 “Spera in deo et ipse faciet”.
• 24 McInally 2020, 23, contrary to the assertion that Scot and Strachan “were simply renewing their fri (...)
• 25 “Iteratô Ex tempore Vincula virtutis pietas: pax vincit amore”; “Judex vasionis et primaru[m] Appel (...)

20It was during his time in Carpentras that Catholic humanist Alexander Scot met fellow Scotsman and Catholic George Strachan. Strachan is remembered for a remarkable career in the Middle East and Persia but at the time he was seeking patronage and preferment (McInally 2020). Strachan was in town to visit Scot William Chisholm, Bishop of Vaison. On 13 September 1601, Scot couched on the page the Psalmist call for Hope (Psalms 37:5) intreating the reader to “trust in the Lord, and he will act”.23 A few months later, on 12 May 1602, the Scottish regent saw Strachan once more, this time about twenty miles further north in the Roman town of Vaison-la-Romaine. At the time, Scot was about to head for Rome. Indeed, in August 1602, he received his letter of introduction and commendation from the Paris nuncio when on his way to his papal visit to promote his work. Travelling back to Scotland, Strachan was thus crossing path with his Eternal City-bound compatriot (Durkan 2002, 123).24 Doctor of law “Al. Scott[u]s” wrote this single dactylic hexameter “Repeated extemporaneously: Piety supplies the bonds of virtue, Peace prevails by means of love” and noted his position as “Judge of Vaison and of the First Appellate Court of the Comtat Venaissin”. Scot might also have drawn out his coat of arms on the page himself (Aberdeen University Library, Scottish Catholic Archives, CB57/12, fo. 84r; Johnstone 1924, 7-8, pl. V).25 That the two friends deeply appreciated each other is evident in the Latin epigram Strachan composed in praise of Scot’s learning and piety in the latter’s 1602 Lyon edition of his Apparatus latinae locutionis (Dellavida 1956, 4-5).

• 26 . Contrary to assumptions, there was a degree of interaction and collaboration between the two comm (...)
• 27 In his detailed study of Avercamp’s album, Uitterdijk mistook the identity of this royal college’s (...)

21These reasonably well documented careers of both Scot and Strachan cannot be perceived as a norm. At times, information is crucially lacking, which alba can partially filled in. One such instance concerns educator John Peirson, principal of the Chauvet college in Loudun. This institution, the Chauvet college, was new and owed its existence to Guy Chauvet, a Parliamentary lawyer, who in 1610 bequeathed a sum of money towards its foundation. The college struggled to flourish, due to the competition of its Protestant rival at a time when most local notables belonged to that denomination. There is virtually no information concerning this Peirson, except that from Loudun he seems to have then relocated to nearby Saumur. Saumur had a royal college established under the patronage of King Henry III. By 1607, the college was in a dire situation and, in a similar situation to Loudun, faced the competition of the new Protestant academy (established in 1599/1600). In 1624, the town council decided to transfer the college to the Oratorians. It is within this transitional context that the name of John Peirson appears as the last principal of the college being replaced by three Oratorian regents. So, this John Peirson having initially served for a while in Loudun left to take up his post at Saumur’s Catholic college, acting as principal, at least for a while, until its transfer to the Oratorians in 1624 (Noyelle 2010; Denécheau).26 His subsequent career cannot be traced.27

• 28 “M J Pyersonus Scotonissensiae Caluorum collegii Juliodunensis Primarius”. To date, the second elem (...)
• 29 “Militia est vita hominis super terram”.

23When the Dutch medical student Avercamp travelled throughout western France in late 1619, he stopped at Loudun. There on 13 December, Avercamp approached Peirson for an inscription in his album, and the Scotman duly obliged, signing in his professional capacity as principal of the Chauvet college in Loudun.28 Peirson adopted a combative stance with Job (7:1) declaring “Has not man a hard service upon earth” (Bibliotheek Rijksuniversiteit, Groningen, Hs. 210, fo. 78r; Uitterdijk 1880, 240).29 The two men were not able to build upon this brief budding friendship, as Avercamp was already in Saumur two days later.

• 30 The long view about Scottish connections with Bordeaux is adopted in Murdoch 2007.

24These brief stays, favoured by Avercamp during his academic tour, were not an isolated case. Other European students opted for these short visits to university towns. It was during one of them that Robert Balfour (died in or after 1621) is encountered. He matriculated at St Andrews University in 1571 and initially taught there but subsequently travelled to France to pursue his studies. Initially settling in Paris, Balfour then proceeded to Bordeaux, probably before 1580, and taught at the city’s leading institution, the Collège de Guyenne, where he remained until his death. There, he taught Greek, held the chair of philosophy and was later the first holder of that of mathematics. In 1602, he became principal of the college until 1621 (Todd 2004; Tucker 2006, 275).30

• 31 Groos 1981, 10-17; Podavka 2016, from the English abstract p. 5; Hartmann-Franzenshuld and Weittenh (...)

25The college had enjoyed a great reputation owing to the quality of the teaching staff which drew students from far and wide. One of these was the Moravian Protestant noble Zdeněk Brtnický z Valdštejna, known as baron Waldstein, who was born in 1581 and was the nephew of the Moravian Chief Justice. Waldstein studied at Moravian and Silesian Latin schools (1591-6) and then at Strasbourg University (1596-1599). In 1599, he embarked on a tour of western and southern Europe (1599-1602) that saw him travel through France, the Netherlands, back to France, England, then back to France once again, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and lastly Italy before his return home to Moravia in the summer of 1602. Wealthy and owner of large estates, Waldstein vigorously supported the Protestant cause and became a member of the directors’ government (in 1619) and chamberlain to the ‘Winter King’ Frederick V during the Estates’ uprising. After the battle of White Mountain, the baron was arrested, among other rebellious leaders, condemned to life imprisonment, and had his property confiscated. He died in the prison of Špilberk castle at Brno in 1623. He used this European grand tour to collect mementoes during his numerous stop-overs that neatly complement his largely unedited travel diary.31

• 32 “R. Balfour Burdigalensis doctor regens”.
• 33 “Τὸ τέχνιον πᾶσα γῆ τρέφει”; Podavka 2014, 130; Erasmus Adagiorvm, col. 939. The quote, however, mi (...)

26When in Bordeaux, the young Moravia baron approached Robert Balfour. Although undated, the meeting took place at some time during Balfour’s principalship of the college as he signed in that capacity.32 Balfour used a Greek quote at the top of the page. The inspiration is taken from Erasmus quoting a proverb of Ancient Greece for a good work ethics in that “Every land lends its support to craftsmanship” (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Cod. series nova 2607, fo. 1r).33 However, the inscription can clearly be dated to 4 May 1600, as Podavka suggests, or the 3^rd-4^th May according to Odier, as Waldstein travelled from Toulouse to Bordeaux and onwards towards Saintes (Odier 1926, 156-7). Then, Balfour’s appointment as regent needs to be corrected at least to that year, if not earlier. Indeed, after his return to Moravia, Waldstein does not seem to have ever visited France again.

• 34 “Patrick Peebles qui Norimberga venit Francofurtum et Duræum compellavit vt in Galliam iret in comi (...)

27Actually, later that month, Waldstein travelled to Saumur where he met the town’s governor Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, one of the leaders of the Huguenot party. The town also boasted its own Protestant academy. Within a few years of fellow Scot Ninian Campbell’s resignation, Patrick Peebles arrived at the Loire institution. Peebles seems to be the student of that name who matriculated at Glasgow University in 1623 (Innes 1854, iii, 76). An insight of his stay in Germany in 1631 is gained by the Hartlib papers which revealed that from Nuremberg Peebles went to Frankfurt and that at John Durie’s instigation Peebles subsequently headed to France (Sheffield University Library, Hartlib Papers, Ephemerides 1634 Part 2, 29/2/16B).34 Arriving from Paris with positive appraisals from the pastors in the French capital, Peebles joined the professoral corps in Saumur in 1634 and taught philosophy and eloquence until 1642. Peebles took ill and died soon afterwards (Tucker ‘Philosophy Teachers’, 54, 59, 63-4; Tucker 2017, 59, 66, 68).

• 35 “olim in Germania contractae nunc uero in Gallia confirmatae”.
• 36 “Dii boni quam male extra legem viuentib[us] semper id quod expectant metuunt”. Petronius Satyricon(...)

29In Saumur, Gronovius caught up with his old acquaintance Peebles, the pair having first met whilst in Germany nine years previously, that is about 1631. During this renewed friendship, Peebles was with Moses Amyraut, the Huguenot theologian and metaphysician and theology professor in Saumur, who wrote an entry for Gronovius on the same day. On 4 January 1640, Peebles paid tribute to that friendship formerly contracted in Germany and now in fact confirmed in France.35 “patricius piblis” signed in his capacity as “eloquentiae professor” and wrote a quote which he self-identified as from first century AD Roman courtier Petronius “Oh heavens, outlaws have a hard life; they are always waiting to get their just desserts” (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, 130 E 32, fo. 163r).36

• 37 Foster 1891-2, iii, 1214; Venn and Venn 1922-7, iii, 399; Tulot 2011, 12-14, 15, 18, 73, and pp. 94 (...)

31Given the highly confessional context of the time, it seems surprising that studies of Scottish churchmen in France have not been produced. This short section will focus on a few of them in their relations with travelling Europeans. David Primrose (1599-1650) was the son of the well-known ecclesiastical figure Gilbert Primrose, a preacher of the Protestant church in Bordeaux and of the French church in London as well as chaplain to both King James VI and Charles I. Born in France, David Primrose graduated with an M.A. from Bordeaux and studied abroad in Geneva (theology), Basel, and Leiden. He was admitted at Oxford University in 1623 and received a B.D. from Exeter College in April 1624. That same year, he was incorporated at Cambridge and laureated with another B.D. Likewise in 1624, the Reformed church of Bordeaux approached him for a post, but he refused for fear of potential opposition he might face from the same quarters that had challenged his father’s ministry. The following year (1625) the Reformed church in Rouen offered him a pastoral post when he was in Scotland (from September 1624 to February 1625). Returning to France, Primrose exercised his ministry in Rouen up until his death in 1650.37

• 38 “V[erbi] D[ei] M[inister]”; “בְּכָל־עֵ֭ת אֹהֵ֣ב הָרֵ֑עַ”; “Hic cum fulgescant magnoru[m] inscripta (...)

33In Rouen on 12 April 1627, preacher Primrose addressed his Swiss peripatetic visitor in writing in Hebrew from the felicitous incipit of Proverbs 17:17 “A friend loves at all times” and in composing two elegiac couplets in Latin: “Since the names of great men shine forth inscribed (in this book), I am surprised you wish to add mine. But this is because you aren’t hunting for men distinguished by Pallas’ arts, but rather for those whom faithful affection joins to yourself” (Universitäts-Bibliothek, Basel, Mscr. Frey-Gryn. V 19, no. 111).38

• 39 “V[erbi] D[ei] M[inister]”; “Inuia virtuti, nulla est via”; Ovid Metamorphoses 308-9.

35His educative travels in France took Wettstein to Rouen. There on 12 June 1638, David Primrose, or “D. Primirosius”, minister of the word of God, congenially inscribed a few words on a page towards the end of the manuscript, noting as a motto the forceful Ovidian precept of virtue in that “There is no way denied to virtue”. (Bibliothèque de la société d’histoire du protestantisme français, Paris, MS 852, p. 619).39 Later on, in 1662, Wettstein instilled the same passion for album keeping to his son Johann Rudolf junior for him to gather friendly mementoes, as the latter took his own volume when he set about on his travels across Europe (Pannier 1929, 61).

• 40 “Ecclesiastes Parisiensis”.

37In this latter position, as minister of the Protestant church of Charenton near Paris40, Morus met the twenty-six-year-old François-Antoine Rognon (d. 1715). Rognon was born in the family of notary Guérard Rognon who also served as local lieutenant in a municipality in the canton of Neuchâtel. In 1658, he embarked on lengthy theological studies initially in Basel then in Geneva (1659) and Paris (1666). The following year (1667), he entered the ministry and was a preacher in Basel in 1668 prior to coming back home in 1674 and settling as minister in various municipalities of the canton of Neuchâtel until his death in 1715 (Clottu 1958, 29).

• 41 “A[nno] τñs Οἰκονομίας”; “S. theologiae Ex professora”.
• 42 “Θεοῦ μή διδόντος, οὐδὲν ἰσχύει πόνος, Θεοῦ διδόντος οὐδὲν ἰσχύει φθόνος”; “Fratribus τοῖς νησιώται (...)

38In his contribution, dated in Paris on 1 October “in the year of grace” 1666, Morus, by then an aged churchman and former theology professor41, felt inspired by the dodecasyllable prayer of Church Father Gregory of Nazianzus: “Without the help of God, working hard is not useful, With the help of God envy has no power” before concluding gloomily on human relationships: “to the brothers on the islands who are rushing through rocks and fires towards mutual destruction, alas doomed”, which encapsulated his life marred by persistent allegations of personal misconducts and unorthodox views (Bibliothèque publique et universitaire de Neuchâtel, Fonds Famille Chaillet, FCHA-105-2.1, fo. 2r).42

• 43 He was probably the same Mr John Menteith in Paris who in April 1567 organized boarding for the son (...)

41After his birth in Stirlingshire in the early 1550s, John Menteith, from the Menteith of Kerse branch, migrated to Heidelberg for his studies in 1568. In the 1570s, he became involved in diplomatic and political activities and, in 1573, seemingly participated in the organization of a Scottish military expedition to defend the Protestants in the Netherlands. In 1575, he travelled through Germany visiting Heidelberg and Frankfurt, meeting English diplomat Sir Philip Sidney along the way. That same year, Menteith settled in Strasbourg and resided there until 1583. In the late 1570s-early 1580s, he acted as a spy for the English under Sir Francis Walsingham, capitalizing on a useful cover as, at that time (1577-82), he became tutor to the younger sons of the late François de Coligny d’Andelot, nephews of the French Protestant Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. In 1582, King James VI and the Duke of Lennox summoned him to return to Scotland. Menteith continued his role as a political agent, including for his adopted city of Strasbourg. In late January 1583, from Sedan, Menteith warned the Strasbourg magistrates about malevolent attempts fomented against the city. Later on that year, he acted as messenger between Jean Sturm, rector of the Strasbourg academy, and the Prince de Condé. In the 1580s, the Scotsman acquired lands in Burgundy and in 1594 married Suzanne Hotman, daughter of the famous Swiss jurist François Hotman. He died around 1606 (Audcent 2014; Archives municipales de Strasbourg, série AA, liasse 736, pièces nos. 65, 67).43

• 44 Helk 1974, 29, 41; Helk 2001, 345; Helk 1976, 377; Klose 1988, 101.
• 45 “Καλῶς ἀκούειν μᾶλλον ἢ πλουτεῖν θέλε”; “ΜΟΝΩ [ΤΩ] ΘΕΩ ΔΟΞΑ”; Edmonds 1961, 924-5; McAndrew 2006, 1 (...)

42In 1579, John Menteith became acquainted with Georg Pakebusch. The Leipzig youth had undertaken a tour across Europe, taking with him a copy of a 1569 edition of Hadrianus Junius’ Emblemata to collect his encomia. After his studies in Leipzig and Strasbourg, he entered Swedish service and became royal secretary, travelling from Stockholm to Lübeck.44 Early on his study tour, Pakebusch saw the spy-tutor Menteith in Strasbourg. There on 18 August 1579, the “scotus” “Joannes de Menteth” stuck to his cherished classical author Menander and enjoined his reader to aspire to honour and “Seek to be thought well of, not well to do”. Above his quote can be found Menteith’s coat of arms with his Greek motto “Glory to God alone” surrounding the bottom of his blazon bearing the familiar chequered bend of Menteith (Det Kongelige Bibliotek Copenhagen, Thott 448 8°, fo. 36r).45

• 46 “Les gens de bien font tousiours bien, ont tousiours bien, sont tousiours bien”; Krekler 1992, 106, (...)
• 47 “Fato prudentia Maior”; Virgil Georgics 128-9.
• 48 The preciousness of time is reminiscent of the work of Scottish Renaissance poet and Franciscan fri (...)

45During his stay in Orléans, Schad became the procurator of the German nation at the university. The meeting with Scotsman James Colville took place on 25 November 1603. Dedicating a few words of affection to the German procurator in French, “Jaques Coluill Escossois” left him witty lines in three languages. In French, Colville used a contemporary proverb which praised moral integrity in that “Upright men always do good, always live prosperously, and always rejoice” (Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, Stammbuch des Philipp Schad, Cod. hist. 2° 888-22, fo. 69v).46 Then in Latin, echoing Virgil, the Scottish diplomat advised that “Prudence is greater than fate”.47 Colville closed his contribution in Scots underlining the preciousness of time and for his audience to appreciate the moment: “Tak tyme in tyme for tyme will away”.48

• 49 Although European training is noted for early-modern physicians, more could be said about these for (...)

47The world of early-modern Scottish science has drawn scholarly interest but more along each particular field than across these scientific disciplines. Even within each discipline, the focus has understandably been on realizations within Scotland itself. Yet, alba show that these Scottish scientists ventured out abroad for their training or career, fully immersing themselves in a broad European humanist culture of exchange and interaction.49

• 50 The album has been studied by Lohmeier 1981; Helk 1971, 114-15, 187; Helk 2001, 339; Helk 1975-6, 5 (...)
• 51 Martin 1979, 346-51, for a few anecdotes of Davisson’s clinical activities at the time.
• 52 “Scotus medicinae [doctor philoso]phiae et med[icinæ] profe[ssor] D. [??]”.
• 53 “Fortunam humili memento f[igere] Saxo”; Boethius Consolation 198-9 “Humili domum memento Certus fi (...)

50In his youth and during his travels, Moth kept not one but two albums. Unfortunately, his second album contains torn pages, including the one on which Davisson signed.50 Nevertheless, part of his contribution can still be read. The few details still available show that Davisson, whose first name only partially appeared on the torn leaf (“Williel[mus]”), was in Paris (“lute[tiae]”) on an unspecified date. Yet, from the album, Moth’s presence in Paris and so his meeting with Davisson can be circumscribed to two short periods, January-April 1636 and April-August 1639.51 Davisson signed as a Scottish doctor of medicine and professor of medicine.52 At the top of the page, he penned his Latin motto, adapted from Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy, enjoining his audience to “Remember to anchor your fortune on a humble rock [i.e. on the rock of humility]”, with which the researcher can positively identify him despite this fragmentary entry (Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen, NKS 600 8°, II, fo. 93r).53 Davisson actually used this motto elsewhere for his portrait and in his major publication and should be set within the alchemical thought and reasoning which tinged his career. This “humble rock” no longer appears humbly but can be read as the philosophers’ stone (Read 1961, 100 and ill. no. 5).

• 54 BL, Add. MS 23105, fo. 67r, for Primrose’s contribution to de Glarges’ album.
• 55 Macintyre and MacLaren 2005, 23-4, 311; Furdell 2002, 26, 37, 63, 175, 200, 203, 237. James is not (...)

51A more orthodox colleague of Davisson’s was physician James Primrose (died 1659), son of Gilbert Primrose (d. 1642) who left France and got established in London in 1623 as a minister of the French and Walloon refugee church in London which he held until his death (Littleton 2004; Scouloudi 1985, 329).54 James Primrose was born at Saint-Jean-d’Angély in Charente-Maritime and was the grandson of King James’ serjeant-surgeon, or principal surgeon, Gilbert Primrose. After his studies at Bordeaux, James pursued medical studies first in Paris and then Montpellier (matr. 1615) where he received his M.D. in 1617. Unlike Davisson, Primrose then returned to Britain and became known as an opponent of William Harvey’s theory of the circulation of the blood with several publications refuting such theory.55

• 56 For his livre d’amitié, consult Catalogus 1783, ‘Alba Amicorum’ no. 22; Nickson 1970, 21; Catalogue (...)

52Belonging to this medical world was student Philips de Glarges (d. 1669), son of Gilles de Glarges, advocate at the Court of Holland and pensionary (legal adviser) of Haarlem. The Haarlem youth first studied in Leiden (1634) and was on the move across his country from 1636, at the latest, gathering encomia on the way in the Netherlands and later France. On his return to his home town, he worked as a doctor. In addition, de Glarges engaged in local politics and sat as alderman and councillor (Biesboer 1989, 33, 42).56

• 57 “Non est in medico semper relevetur vt aeger”; Ovid Ex Ponto 280-1; “Laudes quas Medicis cum sacra (...)

53Towards the end of his recorded journey in his album, de Glarges crossed the North Sea to England and was in London in May and June 1641. There, de Glarges would have rejoiced in getting to know a fellow physician. On 8 June 1641, medical doctor James Primrose penned a few dedicatory lines for him. Although in keeping with the medical theme, Primrose instead chose Classical literature and rallied behind Ovid in declaring a doctor’s powerlessness in that “’Tis not always in a physician’s power to cure the sick”. Primrose added his own thought in criticizing academic physicians and praising medical practitioners instead, highlighting that “The praise that both the Holy Scripture and secular authors give to doctors only fits those who cure diseases, not those who only fight about them in the schools” (BL, Add. MS 23105, fo. 17r).57