Nicolas Volcyr de Serrouville (c. 1480–1541), known in German as Nicolaus Wollick, was a translator, music theorist and historian, one of the most prominent figures of the Renaissance in the Duchy of Lorraine.[1]
Life
Nicolas Volcyr was born in Serrouville in the Duchy of Bar around 1480.[2] His family name was Wolquier, but his published works in French bear the name Volcyr, while his musical work published in Germany bears the name Wollick.[3]
In 1507, Volcyr was appointed master of the choirboys of Metz Cathedral. In 1508, he began lecturing at Paris.[3] He arrived at the court of Lorraine by 1513.[3] He was listed as one of the duke's secretaries on 1 January 1514.[2] On 8 May 1520, through the intercession of Théodore Mitte [fr], he was ennobled by Duke Antoine and took the surname "de Serrouville".[2][4] The duke appointed him court historian (indiciaire).[4] The historian William Monter calls him Antoine's "de facto propaganda minister".[5]
In 1540, Volcyr married Jeanne Chastellain. He drew up his will on 23 May 1541 and died later that year at Nancy.[2]
L'histoire et recueil de la triomphante et glorieuse victoire obtenue contre les séduits et abusés luthériens (Paris: Galliot du Pré, 1527),[6] an account of the German Peasants' War and his most famous work[3]
Traicté nouveau de la desecr actuelle de Jehan Castellan, fanatique (Metz, 1525)[6]
Chronicque abregee par petits vers huytains des Empereurs, Roys et Ducz Daustrasie (Paris: Didier Maheu, 1531)[6]
Volcyr may have been most at home as a translator of Latin works into French.[4] Some of his translations include:
Cité du cueur divin, a translation of the sermon Civitas cordis divini, delivered by Jean Glapion [es] before the court of Lorraine in 1521. It is unpublished and preserved in a manuscript alongside a transcription of the original sermon.[6]
Sermon de charité, a translation of a sermon by Thomas Illyricus (Saint-Nicolas-de-Port: Jérôme Jacob, 1525)[6]
Flave Vegece René, homme noble et illustre, du Fait de guerre et fleur de chevalerie; Sexte Jule Frontin, des Stratagemes; Aelian, de l'Ordre et instruction des batailles; Modeste, des Vocables du fait de guerre, pareillement CXX histoires concernant le fait des guerres, a translation of the four military treatises (Vegetius' De re militari, Frontinus' Stratagemata, Aelian's Tactica and Pseudo-Modestus' De vocabulis rei militaris), dedicated to the Dauphin Francis III, Duke of Brittany (Paris: Chrétien Wechel, 1535)[7]
^Fery-Hue 2015, p. 635: "une des figures marquantes de la cour de Lorraine au début de la Renaissance"; Cullière 2009, p. 441: "une des figures les plus marquantes de la cour lorraine au début de la Renaissance".
Cullière, Alain (2009). "L'«Hérésie» de Nicolas Volcyr (1534)". Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance. 71 (3): 433–455. JSTOR41239510.
Fery-Hue, Françoise (2015). "Un séjour de Nicolas Volcyr au Château de Comines:Trois œuvres inédites dédiées à Georges d'Halluin". Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance. 77 (3): 635–646. JSTOR44511048.