Where can the ashes of Francysk Skaryna be located? Francysk Skaryna: interesting facts Where Francysk Skaryna was born

Ivan Fedorov is revered in Rus' as the first printer. But Francis Skorina "from the glorious city of Polotsk" published his "Russian Bible" fifty years before Ivan Fedorov. And in it he clearly indicated that this book was "written for all Russian people." Francysk Skaryna is a Belarusian and East Slavonic first printer, translator, publisher and artist. The son of a people living on the European border, he brilliantly combined in his work the traditions of the Byzantine East and the Latin West. Thanks to Skaryna, Belarusians received a printed Bible in their native language before Russians and Ukrainians, Poles and Lithuanians, Serbs and Bulgarians, French and British...

In general, the first books in Church Slavonic were published by Schweipolt Fiol in Krakow in 1491. These were: “Oktoih” (“Osmoglasnik”) and “Hourist”, as well as “Lenten Triode” and “Color Triode”. It is assumed that the triodie (without a designated year of publication) was issued by Fiol before 1491.

In 1494, in the town of Obod on Lake Skadar in the Principality of Zeta (now Montenegro), the monk Macarius in a printing house under the auspices of Georgy Chernoevich printed the first book in the Slavic language among the southern Slavs, “Oktoih the First Voice”. This book can be seen in the sacristy of the monastery in Cetinje. In 1512, Macarius printed the Gospel in the Ugro-Wallachia (the territory of modern Romania and Moldavia).

In 1517-1519 in Prague, Francysk Skaryna printed in Cyrillic in the Belarusian version of the Church Slavonic language "Psalter" and 23 more books of the Bible translated by him. In 1522, in Vilna (now Vilnius), Skaryna published the Small Travel Book. This book is considered the first book printed on the territory that was part of the USSR. In the same place in Vilna in 1525, Francysk Skaryna printed "The Apostle". Fedorov's assistant and colleague, Pyotr Mstislavets, studied with Skaryna.

Francysk Skaryna - Belarusian humanist of the first half of the 16th century, medical scientist, writer, translator, artist, educator, first printer of the Eastern Slavs.

Far from all the details of Skaryna's biography have survived to this day, there are still many "white spots" in the life of the work of the great enlightener. Even the exact dates of his birth and death are unknown. It is believed that he was born between 1485 and 1490 in Polotsk, in the family of a wealthy Polotsk merchant Luka Skorina, who traded with the Czech Republic, with Moscow Russia, with Polish and German lands. From his parents, the son adopted love for his native Polotsk, whose name he later always used with the epithet “glorious”. Francis received his primary education at his parents' house - he learned to read the Psalms and write in Cyrillic. It is assumed that he learned Latin (Francis knew it brilliantly) at school at one of the Catholic churches in Polotsk or Vilna.

Skaryna, the son of a Polotsk merchant, received his first higher education in Krakow. There he took a course in "liberal sciences" and was awarded a bachelor's degree. Skaryna also received a master's degree in arts, which then gave the right to enter the most prestigious faculties (medical and theological) of European universities. Scientists suggest that after the University of Krakow, during the years 1506-1512, Skaryna served as a secretary to the Danish king. But in 1512, he left this position and went to the Italian city of Padua, at the university of which “a young man from very distant countries” (as the documents of that time say about him) received the degree of “Doctor of Medicine”, which was a significant event not only in the life of young Francis, but also in the history of the culture of Belarus. Until now, in one of the halls of this educational institution, where there are portraits of famous men of European science who came out of its walls, there is a portrait of an outstanding Belarusian by an Italian master.

About the period 1512-1516 centuries. F. Skaryna's life is unknown to us yet. Modern scientists have suggested that at that time Skorina traveled around Europe, got acquainted with printing and the first printed books, and also met with his brilliant contemporaries - Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael. The reason for this is the following fact - one of Raphael's frescoes depicts a man who is very similar to Skaryna's self-portrait in the Bible he later published. Interestingly, Raphael wrote it next to his own image.

From 1517 Skaryna lived in Prague. Here he began his publishing business and began printing Bible books.

The first printed book was the Slavic "Psalter", in the preface to which it is reported: "I, Francysk Skorina, the son of the glorious Polotsk, a doctor in medical sciences, ordered the Psalter to be embossed in Russian words, and in Slovenian." At that time, the Belarusian language was called “Russian language”, in contrast to Church Slavonic, called “Slovenian”. The Psalter was published on August 6, 1517.

Then, almost every month, more and more new volumes of the Bible were published: the Book of Job, the Parables of Solomon, Ecclesiastes ... In two years in Prague, Francysk Skaryna published 23 illustrated Bible books, translated by him into a language understandable to the general reader. The publisher supplied each of the books with a preface and an afterword, and included almost fifty illustrations in the Bible.

Around 1520 or a little later, the first printer returned to his homeland and founded the first East Slavic printing house in Vilna. Here the “Small Road Book” was published, which is considered the first book published in the Belarusian lands (there is no exact release date for the book). Here, in 1525, "The Apostle" was printed, which turned out to be the last book of the first printer - during the fire in Vilna, the printing house of Francis died. It was with this book that 40 years later Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets, both natives of Belarus, began Russian book printing in Moscow.

The last fifteen years of Francysk Skaryna's life are full of adversity and deprivation: for some time he serves with the Prussian Duke Albrecht the Elder in Koenigsberg, then returns to Vilna, where his family lives. For the debts of her deceased brother, Skaryna is imprisoned in Poznań. The Polish king Sigismund I releases him from trial with a special letter. Around 1535, Francysk Skaryna moved to Prague, where he became the personal doctor and horticulturist of King Ferdinand I of Habsburg, who would later become Holy Roman Emperor. 1540 is considered the year of the death of the great enlightener.

Before the appearance of the well-known Ostroh Bible, Skaryna's editions were the only printed translations of the Holy Scriptures made in the territories of the Eastern and Southern Slavs. These translations became the subject of inheritance and alterations - all East Slavic publishing activity in the field of biblical texts was somehow oriented towards Skaryna. This is not surprising - in many respects his Bible was ahead of similar publications in other countries: before the German Martin Luther, not to mention Polish and Russian publishers. It is noteworthy that the Bible was published in the Old Belarusian language, which largely determined the development of the Belarusian press. The famous "Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania" were printed in the language of Belarus.

A noticeable increase in attention to the heritage of antiquity is also associated with the name of Skaryna. He was perhaps the first in our area to attempt to synthesize antiquity and Christianity, and also proposed an educational program developed in ancient Greece - the system of the "Seven Free Sciences". Later, it was adopted by the fraternal schools of Ukraine and Belarus, developed and improved by the professors of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy and contributed a lot to the convergence of national culture with the culture of the West.

Only four hundred copies of Skaryna's books have survived to this day. All editions are very rare, especially the ones from Vilna. Rarities are stored in libraries and book depositories in Minsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Vilnius, Lvov, London, Prague, Copenhagen, Krakow.

Francysk Skaryna has long been revered in Belarus. The life and work of F. Skorina is studied by a complex scientific discipline - scoring studies. His biography is studied in schools. Streets in Minsk, Polotsk, Vitebsk, Nesvizh, Orsha, Slutsk and many other cities of Belarus are named after him. The Gomel State University bears the name of F. Skaryna. Monuments to the outstanding scientist were erected in Polotsk, Minsk, Lida, Vilnius. The last of the monuments was recently installed in the capital of Belarus, next to the entrance to the new National Library.

All schools in Polotsk introduced a special subject - Polotsk studies, in which F. Skorina occupies a worthy place. Events dedicated to the memory of the pioneer printer are held in the city according to a separately drawn up plan.

Special awards have been introduced in Belarus - the Skaryna medal (1989) and the Order of Skaryna (1995).

Biography

Francysk Skaryna was born in the second half of the 1480s in Polotsk (Grand Duchy of Lithuania) in the family of a merchant Luka. Researcher Gennady Lebedev, relying on the works of Polish and Czech scientists, believed that Skorina was born around 1482.

He received his primary education in Polotsk. Presumably, in 1504 he becomes a student at the University of Krakow - the exact date is unknown, since the record, which is traditionally referred to - “During the [period] of the rectorship of the venerable father Mr. Jan Amitsin from Krakow, doctor of arts and canon law, by the grace of God and the apostolic throne of the Bishop of Laodicene and the suffragan of Krakow, as well as the pleban [church] of St. Nicholas outside the walls of Krakow, in the winter semester in the summer of the Lord 1504, the following [persons] are inscribed [...] Francis son of Luke from P[o]lotsk, 2 grosz, ”can also refer to any Francis from the Polish city of Plock, especially since the amount of 2 grosz contributed by the "applicant" Francis, at that time was small even for a merchant's son.

In 1506, Skaryna graduated from the faculty of "seven free arts" (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music) with a bachelor's degree, later received the title of licentiate of medicine and the degree of doctor of "free arts", as evidenced by a clear act record: "Francis of Polotsk, Litvin".

After that, for another five years, Skaryna studied in Krakow at the Faculty of Medicine, and defended the degree of Doctor of Medicine on November 9, 1512, having successfully passed the exams at the University of Padua in Italy, where there were enough specialists to confirm this defense. Contrary to popular belief, Skaryna did not study at the University of Padua, but arrived there precisely to take the exam for a scientific degree, as evidenced by the university record dated November 5, 1512: “... a certain very learned poor young man arrived, a doctor of arts, originally from very remote countries, perhaps four thousand miles or more from this glorious city, in order to increase the glory and splendor of Padua, and also the flourishing assembly of philosophers of the gymnasium and our holy College. He turned to the College with a request to allow him, as a gift and a special favor, to undergo the grace of God for trials in the field of medicine at this holy College. If, Your Excellencies, if you permit, I will introduce him himself. The young man and the aforementioned doctor bears the name of Mr. Francis, the son of the late Luka Skaryna from Polotsk, Rusyns ... ”On November 6, 1512, Skaryna passed trial tests, and on November 9 he brilliantly passed a special exam and received medical dignity.

In 1517, he founded a printing house in Prague and published the Psalter, the first printed Belarusian book, in Cyrillic. In total, during the years 1517-1519, he translated and published 23 books of the Bible. Skaryna's patrons were Bogdan Onkov, Yakub Babich, as well as the prince, voivode of Trok and the Grand Hetman of Lithuania Konstantin Ostrozhsky.

In 1520 he moved to Vilnius and founded the first printing house on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL). In it, Skaryna publishes the Small Travel Book (1522) and The Apostle (1525).

In 1525, one of the sponsors of the Vilna printing house, Yuri Odvernik, died, and Skaryna's publishing activity stopped. He marries Odvernik's widow Margarita (she died in 1529, leaving a small child). A few years later, other patrons of Skaryna died one by one - the Vilna steward Yakub Babich (in whose house there was a printing house), then Bogdan Onkov, and in 1530 the Trok governor Konstantin Ostrozhsky.

In 1525, the last master of the Teutonic Order, Albrecht of Brandenburg, secularized the Order and proclaimed instead a secular Prussian duchy, vassal to the king of Poland. The master was fascinated by reformist changes, which primarily concerned the church and school. For book publishing Albrecht in 1529 or 1530 invited Francysk Skaryna to Königsberg. The duke himself writes: “Not so long ago we received the glorious husband Francysk Skaryna from Polotsk, doctor of medicine, the most respected of your citizens, who arrived in our possession and the Principality of Prussia, as our subject, nobleman and beloved faithful servant. Further, since the affairs, property, wife, children whom he left with you are his name from here, then, leaving there, he humbly asked us to entrust your guardianship by our letter ... ".

In 1529, the elder brother of Francysk Skaryna, Ivan, dies, whose creditors put forward property claims to Francis himself (apparently, hence the hasty departure with a letter of recommendation from Duke Albrecht). So, Skorina did not stay in Königsberg and after a few months returned to Vilnius, taking with him a printer and a Jewish doctor. The purpose of the act is unknown, but Duke Albrecht was offended by the “stealing” of specialists and already on May 26, 1530, in a letter to the Vilna governor Albert Gostold, he demanded that these people be returned to the duchy.

On February 5, 1532, the creditors of the late Ivan Skaryna, having filed a complaint with the Grand Duke and King Sigismund I, seek the arrest of Francis for his brother's debts under the pretext that Skaryna supposedly hides the property inherited from the deceased and constantly moves from place to place (although in fact in fact, Ivan's son Roman was the heir, but the creditors, most likely, did not lie about the frequent relocations). Francysk Skaryna spent several months in a Poznan prison until his nephew Roman got a meeting with the king, to whom he explained the matter. May 24, 1532 Sigismund I issues a decree on the release of Francysk Skaryna from prison. On June 17, the Poznan court finally decided the case in favor of Skaryna. And on November 21 and 25, King Sigismund, having sorted out the matter with the help of Bishop Jan, issues two privileged charters (privileges), according to which Francysk Skaryna is not only found not guilty and receives freedom, but also all kinds of benefits - protection from any prosecution (except for royal decree), protection from arrests and complete inviolability of property, exemption from duties and city services, as well as "from the jurisdiction and power of each and every one - governor, castellan, elders and other dignitaries, judges and all sorts of judges."

In 1534, Francysk Skorina made a trip to the Principality of Moscow, from where he was expelled as a Catholic, and his books were burned (see the letter of 1552 from the King of the Commonwealth, Zhygimont II August, to Albert Krichka, his ambassador in Rome under Pope Julius III).

Around 1535, Skaryna moved to Prague, where, most likely, she worked as a doctor or, unlikely, as a gardener at the royal court. The widespread version that Skaryna held the position of royal gardener at the invitation of King Ferdinand I and founded the famous garden on Gradchany has no serious grounds. Czech researchers, and after them foreign historians of architecture, adhere to the canonical theory that the "garden on the Castle" (see Prague Castle) was founded in 1534 by invited Italians Giovanni Spazio and Francesco Bonaforde. The proximity of the names Francesco - Francis gave rise to a version of Skorina's gardening activities, especially since the correspondence between Ferdinand I and the Bohemian Chamber clearly states: "master Francis", "Italian gardener", who received a payment and left Prague around 1539. However, in the letter of 1552 of Ferdinand I to the son of the then deceased Francysk Skaryna Simeon, there is the phrase "our gardener."

What Francysk Skaryna actually did in Prague in the last years of his life is not exactly known. Most likely, he practiced as a doctor.

The exact date of his death has not been established, most scholars suggest that Skaryna died around 1551, since in 1552 his son Simeon came to Prague for an inheritance.

Fonts and engraved headpieces from the Vilna printing house Skaryna were used by book publishers for another hundred years.

The language in which Francysk Skaryna printed his books was based on the Church Slavonic language, but with a large number of Belarusian words, and therefore was most understandable to the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. For a long time, there was a heated scientific dispute among Belarusian linguists about which language, of two options, Skaryn translated the books into: the Belarusian edition (excerpt) of the Church Slavonic language or, under another version, into the church style of the Old Belarusian language. Currently, Belarusian linguists agree that the language of translations of the Bible by Francysk Skaryna is the Belarusian edition (excerpt) of the Church Slavonic language. At the same time, the influence of the Czech and Polish languages ​​was noticed in the works of Skaryna.

Skaryna's Bible violated the rules that existed when rewriting church books: it contained texts from the publisher and even engravings with his image. This is the only such case in the history of Bible publishing in Eastern Europe. Due to the ban on independent translation of the Bible, the Catholic and Orthodox Church did not recognize the books of Skaryna.

Sourced from the Internet

Skaryna Francysk Lukic (belor. Skaryna Francysk (Francishak) Lukich) - an outstanding figure of Belarusian culture XVI century, the founder of the Belarusian and East Slavic book printing. Scientist, writer, translator, artist, doctor of philosophy and medicine, poet and educator. S. was born in "glorious place of Polotsk", in a merchant family. The exact date of his birth is unknown. Researcher Gennady Lebedev, relying on the works of Polish and Czech scientists, believed that S. was born around 1482, but most researchers believe that S. was born in 1490 - this was the year that served as the starting point for declaring 1990 by UNESCO the year of Skaryna in honoring the 500th anniversary of his birth. The justification for this version is the reliable fact that in 1504 S. entered to the faculty of "seven free arts", where they were admitted upon reaching the age of 14, but the year of birth was not recorded upon admission to the university, since it obviously had no significant significance. It is possible that S. was an overgrown student. Perhaps this is the origin of the exceptional seriousness with which he treated his studies, and later cultural and scientific activities.
Father S., merchant "middle hand"Luka Skorina, traded in skins and other goods in many cities. His father's stories about the dangers of long journeys, exotic lands and cities, orders, customs and customs in different countries made up the spiritual atmosphere of S.'s childhood, which aroused in him the desire to know the world and comprehend the sciences that explained this world and prompted a person how to navigate in it. . It is believed that S. received his initial education at his parents' house, where he learned to read from the Psalms and write in Cyrillic letters. From his parents, he adopted love and respect for his native Polotsk, whose name he later always reinforced with the epithet"glorious"used to be proud of people"commonwealth", people "Russian language", and then came to the idea to give the fellow tribesmen the light of knowledge, to introduce them to the cultural life of Europe. To engage in science, S. had to know Latin - the then language of science - therefore, there is reason to believe that for some time he studied at a school at one of the Catholic churches in Polotsk or in Vilna (modern Vilnius).
After two years of study at the University of Krakow S. was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, as evidenced by the acts discovered more than a hundred years ago.
In 1507-1511. S. continued his studies in Krakow or at any university in Western Europe (exact information was not found). He studied medicine and also received a doctorate in liberal arts. This education already allowed him to get a position that would provide him with a quiet life.
November 5, 1512 to the Italian city of Padua, university which was famous not only for its medical faculty, but also as a school of humanist scientists, specifically for examinations for a degree MD "... a certain very learned poor young man, a doctor of arts, came from very distant countries, perhaps four thousand miles or more from this glorious city, in order to increase the glory and splendor of Padua, as well as the flourishing collection of philosophers of the gymnasium and a saint of our College. He turned to the College with a request to allow him, as a gift and a special favor, to undergo the grace of God's trials in the field of medicine at this holy College. If, Your Excellencies, I will introduce him himself. The young man and the above-mentioned doctor bears the name Mr. Francis, son of the late Luka Skaryna from Polotsk, Rusyns...". At a meeting of the medical board in the church of St. Urban, a decision was made on the admission of S. to the exam for the degree of doctor of medical sciences. S. defended his scientific theses for two days in disputes with prominent scientists, and on November 9, 1512, he was unanimously recognized as worthy of the high title of medical scientist. This was a significant event in his life and in the history of the culture of Belarus - the merchant's son from Polotsk confirmed that abilities and vocation are more valuable than aristocratic origin. Later he called himself "... teacher in sciences and medicine", "Doctor in medicine", "scientist" or "chosen husband". On the walls of the "Hall of Forty" of the University of Padua, fresco portraits of forty of its greatest graduates are painted, among which, the second after Galileo Galilei, -.
There is no information about the next five years of S.'s life. Separate facts indicate that he turned to the social problems of the humanities, from which he began his academic career. Perhaps even in Krakow, where there were several Latin printing houses, S. had a great dream"to emboss"books of the Bible in their native language, make available to their fellow countrymen, so that they themselves"people of the Commonwealth" could learn and improve real life.
Between 1512 and 1517, S. appears in Prague, where, since the time of the Hussite movement, there has been a tradition of using biblical books in shaping public consciousness, establishing a more just society and educating people in a patriotic spirit . In Prague, S. orders printing equipment and starts translating and commenting on the books of the Bible. This was the beginning of Belarusian and East Slavic book printing. The first book that S."commanded ... emboss in Russian words, and in Slovenian" , - "Psalter" - was published on August 6, 1517. In less than three years, S. translated, commented on and published 23 books of the "Bible", each of which began"foreword", or "story", and ended"afterword"(calafon).
The Bible published by S. in his translation into the Old Belarusian language is a unique phenomenon. The prefaces and afterwords he wrote captured a developed sense of authorial self-awareness, patriotism, unusual for that era, complemented by a sense of historicism, unusual for the ancient world, but characteristic of a Christian, awareness of the uniqueness of each life event.
Preface for the Belarusian literature of that time they were a new, actually secular genre. With their help, S. directs the perception of readers, tells them that each book is the basis of the content, how this content is presented, how to read in order to understand not only the description of external events, but also the inner meaning - subtext. Already in the title S. claims that"bivlia ruska" should serve "to honor God and the people of the Commonwealth to good teaching" . This meant that he separated the liturgical, confessional purpose of the book from the educational one. Having singled out the educational function of the book, calling it independent, S. demonstrated a new, humanistic approach, which was followed by the leading thinkers of his time, national educators and humanist scientists.
The design of S.'s books also delights. The publisher included almost fifty illustrations in the first Belarusian Bible. Numerous splash screens, other decorative elements in harmony with page layout, font and title pages. His Prague editions contain many ornamental decorations and about a thousand graphic initials. Later, in publications produced in his homeland, he used more than a thousand of these initials.
On depicted, according to the researchers, the seal (coat of arms) S. as a doctor of medicine. The main content of this image "Moon Solar" is the acquisition of knowledge, physical and spiritual treatment of a person. The image of the month reflects the profile of the first printer himself. Next to the coat of arms is the sign "scales", which is formed by the letter "T", which means "microcosm, man", and the triangle "delta" (Δ), which symbolizes the scientist and the entrance to the Kingdom of knowledge.
The uniqueness of the first Belarusian Bible also lies in the fact that the publisher and commentator placed in the books complex in composition and symbolic meaning.
According to some researchers, the guess about the heliocentric system is encrypted in symbolic engravings. There is nothing strange in this: S. has a lot in common with Nicolaus Copernicus: at about the same time they studied in Poland, were in Italy, both studied medicine and it is quite possible that they met. But that's not the point. S. and Copernicus are the founders of the new time, they were both a product of the same spiritual and historical environment, so the opinion of researchers about the engraving mentioned has the right to exist. The presence of these innovations is the only case in the entire history of the publication of the Bible in Eastern Europe.

The complete collection of original editions of S. is not in any library in the world. Czech editions (23 books) became available to the public after their facsimile reproduction by the Belarusian Encyclopedia publishing house in the early 1990s.In 2003 at the initiative of the German Slavist Hans Rote employees of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of Belarus and the University of Bonn (Germany) prepared a facsimile edition of the "Bible" of the "Apostle" with comments in German and English 1 .
It is difficult to unequivocally answer why S. chose Czech Prague to implement his plans. Some researchers believe that S. was somehow connected with the Belarusian-Polish royal dynasty of the Jagiellons, and during S.'s stay in Prague, Jagiellon Ludwig was the Czech lord I 2 .According to other scientists, the reason for this was the previously published Czech "Bible", taken by S. as a model.
The location of the Prague Printing House S. is unknown. In Prague, on the eve of the 480th anniversary of Belarusian book printing, a monument to S. was opened and a memorial plaque was installed.
In 1520-21. S. left Prague and moved to Vilna. The plan to print the entire Bible remained unfinished. S. published the vast majority of the then known books of the Old Testament, and from the Bible, he chose the most important and interesting books for the reader. Researchers believe that the Catholic reaction, which in the Czech Kingdom began to persecute the Reformation, and at the same time all the Gentiles, could have forced him to unexpectedly stop his work. The reason for S.'s move to Vilna could also be a terrible pestilence in the Czech capital. It is possible that he was recalled by merchants-philanthropists Yakub Babich and Bogdan Onkov, who considered that they could complete this business cheaper at home."Naystarshi Burmeister" Yakub Babich set aside a room for the printing house in his own house. Wealthy Vilna merchant Bogdan Onkov, who financed the publishing activities of S. back in Prague, tried to find out the demand for books published by S. in Moscow, when he repeatedly visited her on business. It is believed that S. himself in the mid-1520s. could visit the capital of the Russian state.
Somewhere between 1525 and 1528, S. married the widow of the Vilna merchant Yuri Odvernik Margarita, improved his financial situation and, together with his wife, took part in the trading business of his elder brother Ivan Skorina, who was engaged in the wholesale trade in skins. But the main occupation, life's work for S. were typography and creativity.
From the first Belarusian printing house around 1522 was published "Small travel book" - a collection of religious and secular works from the Psalms to the Sobornik. It marked the spring and autumn equinoxes, the winter and summer solstices, calculated the Easter holidays, the dates of the eclipses of the Sun and the Moon. The book was addressed to people of the spiritual and civil classes, who, by the nature of their activities, had to travel frequently and receive confessional and astronomical information on the road, and, if necessary, recall the words of prayers and psalms.
In March 1525 S. published his last book, The Apostle.
S. also travels around Europe. He visits Wittenberg to the founder of German Protestantism, Martin Luther, who just at that time (1522-1542) was translating into German and publishing the Protestant Bible. In addition, he was a doctor of theology, and S. was deeply interested in social, legal, philosophical and ethical issues in the context of biblical teaching. However, there was no rapprochement between them. Moreover, Luther suspected S. of a Catholic missionary, and also remembered the prophecy that he was threatened with spells, and left the city.
Around the same time, S. visited Moscow on an educational mission. He probably offered his books and services as a publisher and translator. However, by order of the Moscow prince, he was expelled from the city, and the books he brought were publicly burned as "heretical", since they were published in a Catholic country. There is no doubt that some of them still survived. But the influence of Belarusian S. on the formation of the Russian language to a greater extent occurred later - through the publication of books in Muscovy by I. Fedorov and P. Mstislavets, who used the works of S.
At the end of 1520s. S. went to Prussia, to Koenigsberg, under the tutelage of Duke Albrecht of Hohenzollern, who, carried away by the ideas of the Reformation, wanted to organize printing there. S. stayed in Koenigsberg for a short time: in the summer of 1529 his elder brother Ivan died in Poznań. S. went there to deal with the legacy of the deceased. At the beginning of 1530, a fire broke out in Vilna, which destroyed two-thirds of the city, including S.'s printing house. During this fire, his wife Margarita died, leaving S.'s infant son in her arms. Relatives of the deceased sued S., demanding the division of her property. S. was forced to return to Vilna. The Duke issued S. recommendation letter, which he instructed"an outstanding and learned husband" the benevolence of the Vilna governor Albrecht Gashtold and the magistrate asked the Vilna magistrate to assist S. in solving court cases. In the pass sheet, which was also issued by the duke, it was noted that he enrolled among his subjects and faithful servants and"an outstanding husband of wide erudition, Francysk Skaryna from Polotsk, Doctor of Fine Arts and Medicine ... Both out of attention to an outstanding husband of incomparable intelligence and artistic talent, bright healing talent and glorious experience, and for the sake of our honor, participation and sympathy, all kindness, patronage and assistance to render him " .
S. becomes a family doctor and secretary of the Vilna Catholic Bishop Yana has been combining these two positions for almost ten years. At the same time S. engaged in publishing and trade with his brother. The Bishop of Vilna was an illegitimate royal son, distinguished by conservatism and religious fanaticism. According to his slander, the Polish king issued several edicts that limited traditional religious tolerance and freedom of religion in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and granted privileges to Catholics. Under these conditions, it was difficult to resume printing. In addition, the Warsaw creditors of the late brother sued S.: wealthy Jewish merchants began to demand from him the payment of his brother's debts. In February 1532, they obtained a royal decree for the arrest of S., and he spent about 10 weeks in a Poznań prison. His nephew Roman stood up for S.: he achieved an audience with King Sigismund I and proved to him that S. had no direct relation to the affairs of his brother. On May 24, 1532, the king ordered the release of S. and issued him a safe-conduct:“Let no one except us and our heirs have the right to bring him to court and judge, no matter how significant or insignificant the reason for his summoning to court ...” .
Having been released, S. filed a lawsuit against his offenders, demanding compensation for the losses he suffered as a result of unjust arrest and imprisonment. It is not known whether he won this case, and whether the royal charter helped him in this.
In the mid-1530s, S. served as a physician and gardener to the Czech king Ferdinand I Habsburg in the royal castle on Hradcany. The new position looked like a promotion in the rank of a recent doctor and secretary of the Vilna bishop. Czech researchers and some foreign architectural historians refute the version that S. was engaged in gardening. They believe that"Garden on the Grad"was laid by Italian guests Giovanni Spazio and Francesco Bonaforde. The version of S.'s gardening activity could have been generated by the closeness of the consonance and spelling of the names Francis and Francesco. At the same time, they refer to the correspondence of Ferdinand I with the Bohemian Chamber, which mentions"master Francis", "Italian gardener" , who received the calculation and left Prague around 1539. One cannot exclude the possibility of combining S. with the posts of a physician and a gardener after the departure of Francesco Bonaforde. According to some archival data, S. in Prague specialized in the cultivation of citrus fruits and herbs for healing, preparing his own medicines from the plants of the botanical garden and treating crowned persons.
The Prague years of S.'s life passed relatively calmly. He remained in Prague until his death, the exact date of which is also unknown. Most scholars assume that S. died no later than 29/01/1552. The documents that have been preserved make it possible to assume that the medical scientist had property in Prague, which, as an inheritance, passed after his death to his son Simeon, as evidenced by the act of 29.1. 1552 Bohemian King Ferdinand I Habsburg on the legal right of the son to the father's property.
S. - a scientist and educator - was not only the son of his time, but, above all, the son of his native land. He took the Renaissance innovations carefully, heading towards enlightenment. He knew how to be reasonable and restrained, remembering that his work and plans are carried out in line with the patriarchal-Christian tradition, which firmly dominated the homeland. S.'s worldview carried the idea of ​​the moral improvement of society and man, characteristic of humanists. He was the first in the history of Belarusian social thought to take upon himself the burden of connecting the consciousness of his countrymen with the universal treasury of moral values, which included biblical Christian legends and ancient myths, philosophical teachings, codes of laws and customs. All the prefaces and afterwords to his editions can be considered allegories, in which, along with direct educational content, allegorical content unfolds, subtext - a chain of hints on how one should perceive native history and modern social life on the canvas of the Hellenic-Biblical canon, for that time - the highest norms. S. was a supporter and representative of the realistic and educational trend in the spiritual life, science and art of the Renaissance, which tried to combine feelings and reason into one whole - wisdom. In two centuries, this trend will take a key place in European culture and will be called classicism. Living for a long time in a foreign land, S. retained his patriotic feelings and strengthened his connection with the spiritual values ​​of the people. As a humanist scientist, he highly valued the creative forces of nature itself, and attributed patriotic feelings to the natural and universal innate properties of all living things. The attachment of living beings to their native places is a universal, in the understanding of S., the pattern of being, thanks to which the life of an individual becomes purposeful and reasonable. Thanks to this, every living being draws closer to the clan, and the human personality to the people, so there are connections between a person and society and native land:“Because from birth, animals walking in the desert know their pits; birds flying through the air know their nests; fish swimming in the sea and in rivers smell their own vira ... so are people where they were born and fed .. . to that place have a great caress" . These words can be considered a kind of core of S.
About S. and his book publishing activities, Russian and European researchers spoke loudly at the end XVIII V. (I. G. Buckmeister, L. I. Backmeister, J.-G. Stritter, E. S. Bandke, etc.). His educational activities gained considerable fame at the beginning XX V. and especially in the post-October period. 400 and 450 years of Belarusian book printing were widely celebrated. By decision of UNESCO (1970), S., together with M. Lomonosov, A. Pushkin, T. Shevchenko, Y. Kupala, and others, was included in the list of prominent figures of Slavic culture, whose anniversary is widely celebrated throughout the Slavic world. S. has long been well known to the peoples of Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic and is famous in his homeland - Belarus. Streets, squares and institutions are named after him in the cities of Belarus. His work is the source of numerous works of Belarusian literature and art.
The life path of S. is in many ways indicative of the people of the Renaissance, whom F. Engels called"titans in the power of thought, passion and character, in versatility and learning" . He combined his love of knowledge and breadth of education with a high civic culture, efficiency and courage, the ability to set innovative tasks and solve them intelligently. S. was both an original thinker and a talented writer, a prolific publicist and diligent translator, an inventive artist and a businessman - a first printer. The wealth of S.'s personality puts him next to such prominent people of the Renaissance as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Thomas More, Thomas Müntzer, Erasmus of Rotterdam and others, and the Belarusian culture, in the field of which he worked, is on a par with European culture.
The Belarusian people sacredly keeps the memory of their outstanding countryman, one of the greatest historical figures. The university in Gomel, the central library, the pedagogical school, gymnasium No. 1 in Polotsk, gymnasium No. 1 in Minsk, the non-governmental public association "Belarusian Language Society" ("Belarusian Language Association") and other organizations and objects bear his name. In 1980, the State Bank of the USSR issued denomination of 1 ruble with his image of S. on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of his birth. Streets in many cities of the Republic of Belarus and other countries are named after S. The highest state awards of the Republic of Belarus are named in his honor - 3 (1989) and 4 (1995). Monuments to S. are installed in Minsk (one -, and the second -), , Prague. The name of S. is named minor planet N 3283, discovered by the Soviet astronomer N.I. Chernykh.

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1 The publication was funded by the German federal government as part of the comprehensive program "Bible". The first part of the book was prepared by the scientists of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. It contains comments on the most significant aspects of the activity of S., stages of his life and work, detailed articles by Professor Arnold McMillin of the University of London and linguistic comments on the "Apostle" by Professor Hans Rote of the University of Bonn. The second part of the edition consists of facsimile texts of the "Apostle", published in Vilna in 1525.
(1055 pages and over 50 illustrations).

2 The Jagiellonian dynasty played a significant role in the life of Europe. And it all started with the wedding of King Jagella with Princess Sophia Golshanskaya in Novogrudok - now a district town in Belarus. Jagella's heirs throughout medieval history entered into dynastic marriages with royal and royal courts. Moreover, the royal house of the Romanovs also originates from the Jagiellons.

3 The Francysk Skaryna Medal is awarded to workers in science, education and culture for excellent achievements in their professional activities, a significant personal contribution to the development and multiplication of the spiritual and intellectual potential, the cultural heritage of the Belarusian people.

4 The Order of Francysk Skaryna is awarded to citizens of:

For significant success in the field of national-state revival, outstanding research into the history of Belarus, achievements in the field of the national language, literature, art, book publishing, cultural and educational activities, as well as promotion of the cultural heritage of the Belarusian people;

For special merits in humanitarian, charitable activities, in the defense

Human dignity and rights of citizens, mercy and other noble deeds.

On the ribbon framing the oval there is an inscription "Francis Georgiy Skaryna". For some time it was believed that S. was actually called not Francis, but George. This was first discussed after the publication in 1858 of copies of two charters of King Sigismund I in Latin. In one of them, before the name of the first printer, there was a Latin adjective egregium in meaning "excellent, famous", in the second the meaning of the word egregium was filed as George. This single form led some researchers to believe that S.'s real name was George. In 1995, the Belarusian historian and bibliologist G. Galenchenko found the original text of the privilege of King Sigismund, in which the well-known fragment "with George" was stated as follows: "... egregium Francisci Scorina de Poloczko artium et medicine doctoris". The scribal error caused controversy over the name of the first printer, which lasted for more than 100 years.

Information sources:

1. Francis Skorina and his time: Encyclopedic reference book / Redkol. I.P. Shamyakin (editor-in-chief) [and others] - Minsk: Publishing House "Belarusian Soviet Encyclopedia" named after. Petrus Brovki, 1990. - 631 p. : ill. ISBN 5-85700-031-9.

2. Asvetn i to i zeml i Belaruskai: Encykl. yesterday i to / Redkal.: G.P. Pashkoў [i insh. ] - Minsk: BelEn, 2001. - 496 p. : il. ISBN 985-11-0205-9. (In Belarusian).

3. Website

Francysk Skaryna is an outstanding figure of the Belarusian culture of the 16th century, the founder of the Belarusian and East Slavic book printing, whose versatile activities were of general Slavic significance. Scientist, writer, translator and artist, Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine, humanist and educator Francysk Skaryna had a significant impact on the development of many areas of Belarusian culture. His publishing activities met the requirements of the time and the broad strata of the Belarusian population and, at the same time, expressed the deep organic unity of the entire East Slavic culture, which was an integral part of the spiritual treasury of all European peoples.

Francysk Skaryna was born in Polotsk. The exact date of his birth is unknown. It is believed that he was born around 1490. However, according to the representative of the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Vl. Vl. Agnevich, the date of birth of F. Skaryna is April 23, 1476. This date of his birth has not been confirmed in other scientific sources. On the contrary, most of the writers point out that F. Skorina was indeed born in 1490. This assumption is based on the existence in those days of the custom to send boys to study at universities, as a rule, at the age of 14 - 15 years. But the leadership of the universities did not particularly pay attention to the age of the student; the year of birth was not recorded, because it obviously did not have significant significance. It is possible that F. Skorina was an overgrown student. Perhaps this is the origin of the exceptional seriousness with which he treated his studies, and later on cultural and scientific activities.

It is believed that F. Skorina received his initial education at his parents' house, where he learned to read from the Psalter and write in Cyrillic letters. From his parents, he adopted love and respect for his native Polotsk, the name, which he later always reinforced with the epithet "glorious", used to be proud of the people "commonwealth", the people of the "Russian language", and then came to the idea of ​​giving his fellow tribesmen the light of knowledge, introducing them to cultural life Europe. To engage in science, F. Skaryna needed to master Latin - the then language of science. Therefore, there is reason to believe that he had to go to school for a certain time at one of the Catholic churches in Polotsk or Vilna. In 1504 an inquisitive and enterprising Polotsk citizen goes to Krakow, enters the university, where he studies the so-called free sciences, and after 2 years (in 1506) receives the first bachelor's degree. In order to continue her studies, F. Skorina also needed to receive a master's degree in arts. He could have done this in Krakow or in some other university (exact information has not been found). The degree of a master of free arts gave F. Skaryna the right to enter the most prestigious faculties of European universities, which were considered medical and theological.

This education already allowed him to get a position that provided him with a quiet life. It is believed that around 1508 F. Skorina temporarily served as a secretary to the Danish king. In 1512 he was already in the Italian city of Padua, whose university was famous not only for its medical faculty, but also as a school of humanist scientists. At a meeting of the medical board of the university in the Church of St. Urban, a resolution was adopted on the admission of a poor, but capable and educated Rusyn, Francysk Skaryna, to the exam for the degree of doctor of medical sciences. F. Skorina defended his scientific theses for two days in disputes with outstanding scientists, and on November 9, 1512 he was unanimously recognized as worthy of the high rank of a medical scientist. Records of the examination protocol have been preserved, which, in particular, say: "He showed himself so commendably and excellently during the rigorous test, setting out the answers to the questions put to him and rejecting the evidence put forward against him, that he received the unanimous approval of all the scientists present without exception and was recognized with sufficient knowledge in the field of medicine. Later, he will always refer to himself: "in the sciences and medicine, a teacher", "in the medicinal sciences, Doctor", "scientist" or "chosen husband". This was a significant event in his life and in the history of the culture of Belarus - the merchant's son from Polotsk confirmed that abilities and vocation are more valuable than aristocratic origin. Although he is poor, he is capable, persistent and efficient, he is the one who, with his work, his will, overcame difficulties and rose to the heights of medieval education.

After the scientific triumph, information about F. Skaryna is again lost for as much as 5 years. Somewhere between 1512 and 1517, F. Skorina appears in Prague, where, since the time of the Hussite movement, there has been a tradition of using biblical books in shaping public consciousness, establishing a more just society and educating people in a patriotic spirit. It is hypothesized that F. Skaryna, even after completing his studies at the University of Krakow, could live and continue his studies in Prague. Indeed, in order to translate and publish the Bible, he needed to get acquainted not only with Czech biblical studies, but also thoroughly study the Czech language. Therefore, only those who knew its scientific and publishing environment could choose Prague as a place for organizing book printing. In Prague, F. Skorina orders printing equipment, starts translating and commenting on the books of the Bible. An educated and businesslike Polotsk resident laid the foundation for Belarusian and East Slavic book printing.

On August 6, 1517, the Psalter comes out, then almost every month a new book of the Bible is published. In two years he published 23 illustrated books. In the early days of printing (Gutenberg only invented typesetting in the middle of the 15th century), such a pace was impossible without prior preparation. Probably, Skaryna already had a manuscript of all the books of the Bible in his translation into his native language, which he did for several years after studying in Italy.

The Bible published by F. Skorina in its translation into the Old Belarusian language is a unique phenomenon. The prefaces and afterwords he wrote captured a developed sense of authorial self-awareness, patriotism, unusual for that era, complemented by a sense of historicism, unusual for the ancient world, but characteristic of a Christian, awareness of the uniqueness of each life event.

The design of Skaryna's books is also admirable. The publisher included almost fifty illustrations in the first Belarusian Bible. Numerous splash screens, other decorative elements in harmony with page layout, font and title pages. His Prague editions contain many ornamental decorations and about a thousand graphic initials. Later, in publications produced in his homeland, he used more than a thousand of these initials. The uniqueness of the first Belarusian Bible also lies in the fact that the publisher and commentator placed his portrait, complex in composition and symbolic meaning, in the books. According to some researchers, the guess about the heliocentric system is encrypted in symbolic engravings ... If you think about it, this is not very surprising. Francysk Skaryna has a lot in common with Nicolaus Copernicus. At about the same time, they studied not only in Poland, but also in Italy. Both studied medicine. Perhaps they met. But the main thing is different. F. Skorina and N. Copernicus are the founders of the new time, both of them were a product of the same spiritual and historical environment.

F. Skorina's books are a unique phenomenon of world culture: there is no complete collection of his original editions in any library in the world. Czech editions (23 books) became available to the public after their facsimile reproduction by the Belarusian Encyclopedia publishing house in the early 1990s. Last year, at the initiative of the German Slavist Hans Rote, a facsimile reprint with theoretical and textual comments of an even rarer edition of F. Skaryna's "Apostle" was carried out.

Around 1521, Skorina returned to his homeland, founded the first East Slavic printing house in Vilna. The very next year, he publishes the "Small Road Book", where he combined the Psalter, the texts of church services and hymns, as well as the astronomical church calendar. In March 1525, he also published "Apostol" (Acts and Epistles of the Apostles) there. With this book, 40 years later, Russian book printing began in Moscow, Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets, both natives of Belarus.

For almost ten years, Skaryna has been combining two positions - a secretary and a doctor - with the Bishop of Vilna - an illegitimate royal son. At the same time, he does not leave the publishing business, he is engaged in trade with his brother. F. Skorina does not stop traveling. He visits Wittenberg to the founder of German Protestantism, Martin Luther. Just at this time (1522-1542) the founder of Lutheranism was translating into German and publishing the Protestant Bible. In addition, he was a doctor of theology, and Skaryna was deeply interested in social, legal, philosophical and ethical problems in the context of biblical teaching. However, there was no rapprochement between them. Moreover, Luther suspected the Belarusian first printer of a Catholic missionary, and also remembered the prophecy that he was threatened with spells, and left the city.

In general, there are many similarities in these destinies. Martin Luther, having published the Protestant "Bible" in German, actually canonized him. The same can be said about the role of Francysk Skaryna in the formation of the Belarusian language. Moreover, the influence of his books on the Russian language is indisputable.

Around the same time when F. Skorina visited M. Luther, he visited Moscow with an educational mission. He probably offered his books and services as a publisher and translator. However, by order of the Moscow prince, he was expelled from the city, and the books he brought were publicly burned as "heretical", since they were published in a Catholic country. There is no doubt that some of them still survived. But the influence of the Belarusian F. Skorina on the formation of the Russian language to a greater extent occurred later - through the publication of books in Muscovy by I. Fedorov and P. Mstislavets, who used the works of their compatriot in their work.

Soon, F. Skorina, at the invitation of the last master of the Teutonic Order, the Prussian Duke Albrecht, visits Koenigsberg. However, at that time in Vilna, during a fire that destroyed two-thirds of the city, Skaryna's printing house burned down. I had, despite the anger of the duke, to return. The dramatic events did not end there. During the fire, his wife died. A year earlier, the elder brother, heir to his father's business, had died. His creditors, the Polish "bankers", made debt claims to Francis, and he ended up in prison. True, a few weeks later he was released by royal decree, taken under royal guardianship, legally equated with the gentry (noble) class. The monarch gave him a special privilege: “Let no one except us and our heirs have the right to bring him to court and judge, no matter how significant or insignificant the reason for his summons to court ...” (Note: royal favor again).

Publishing and educational activities did not bring dividends to F. Skorina, rather they depleted his initial capital. The patron saint, the Bishop of Vilna, also dies. Francis goes to Prague, where he becomes a gardener for King Ferdinand 1 of Habsburg, who would later become Holy Roman Emperor. One might wonder: what is the unusual transformation of a doctor and publisher into a gardener? The explanation is simple: most likely F. Skorina was a botanist-gardener. In those days, medical education included knowledge in the field of botany. According to some archival data, Skorina in Prague specialized in the cultivation of citrus fruits and herbs for healing.

The correspondence of the Czech king with his secretary has been preserved, from which it turns out that the "Italian gardener Francis" (as F. Skaryna was called there) did not serve until the end of his days, but only until July 1539. It was then that the king honored him with a farewell audience.

13 years later, Ferdinand issued a letter stating that "Doctor Frantisek Rus Skaryna from Polotsk, who once lived, our gardener, was a stranger in this Czech kingdom, descended to eternal rest and left behind his son Simeon Rus and certain property, papers, money and other things belonging to him. The king ordered all employees of the state to help the son of Skaryna in receiving the inheritance. The archives testify that Simeon also inherited his father's art: he was a practicing doctor and a gardener.

What "Francis from the glorious place of Polotsk" did before his death, whether he returned to the publishing business, history is silent.

All the same Vl. Vl. Agnevich establishes the exact date and place of F. Skaryna's death - June 21, 1551. in Padua.

The specific social existence of Belarusian townspeople in the system of the feudal system causes the emergence in their minds of new social and moral guidelines and values. In the urban environment, along with wealth, class privileges, more and more importance is attached to the individual merits of a person, his energy, intelligence, and moral virtues. In this regard, the prestige of professional skills, education, and knowledge is growing. Some wealthy townspeople are beginning to act as patrons of the arts, showing some concern for domestic education, book printing, and science. It is not surprising, therefore, that it was the urban environment that brought forward one of the most prominent figures of Belarusian culture and social thought of the 16th century. - Francis Skaryna. The appearance of such a personality in the history of Belarusian culture in philosophical and social thought was possible only in the conditions of a developed city. It is also very symptomatic that Skaryna's publishing activities in Prague and Vilna were carried out with the financial assistance of wealthy Belarusian citizens of Vilna.

During the XIV-XVI centuries. the Belarusian nation is being formed. The formation of the Belarusian nationality took place on the basis of the western branch of the Old Russian nationality, which during the period of the collapse of Kievan Rus retained many of its tribal, economic, household, linguistic and other differences. Based on a whole range of sources, modern Soviet researchers have come to the conclusion that "the Belarusian nationality, as well as the Russian and Ukrainian nationalities, originates from a single root - the Old Russian nationality, its western part. The Old Russian nationality was a common stage in the history of all three fraternal nationalities , and this is the peculiarity of the ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs, in contrast to other nationalities formed directly from the consolidation of primary tribes. The formation of the Belarusian nationality was carried out mainly as part of a new state entity - the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the socio-economic and political development of the Belarusian lands was of decisive importance in this process. The ethnic basis of the genesis of the Belarusians was the descendants of the Dregovichi, Dnieper-Dvina Krivichi and Radimichi. Together with them, a part of the former northerners, Drevlyans and Volhynians became part of the Belarusian nationality. A certain Baltic substrate also participated in the ethnogenesis of Belarusians, but it did not play a significant role. During the period under review, the culture of the Belarusian people was formed, special features of the national language were formed, which was reflected in writing, including in the works of Skaryna. At the same time, the process of formation of the Belarusian nationality and its culture was carried out in close connection with the economic, socio-political and cultural life of the Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Polish peoples.

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was not only a multinational, but also a multi-religious state. The bulk of the population, Belarusians and Ukrainians, were Orthodox. The Lithuanians, at least until 1386, were pagans. After the Union of Kreva, the catholization of Lithuania begins. Catholicism, which is patronized by the grand ducal power, penetrates into the Belarusian-Ukrainian lands and gradually wins one position after another there, from the very beginning acting as a means of strengthening the power of the feudal lords over the Belarusian, Ukrainian and Lithuanian peasants and townspeople, a means of realizing the socio-political claims of the Polish magnates and expansionist plans of the Vatican. From the middle of the 16th century, in connection with the reform movement, Protestantism in the form of Calvinism, partly Lutheranism and antitrinitarianism was established in Belarus and Ukraine. Its influence on Belarusian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian feudal lords, townspeople, and a small number of peasants is temporarily increasing. However, at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, frightened by the intensified anti-feudal and national-religious movement, the radicalism of the Reformation, the majority of feudal lords broke with Protestantism and converted to Catholicism. It should also be noted here that due to the prevailing historical circumstances, some of the Belarusian and Ukrainian townspeople and peasants also belonged to the Catholic faith. In addition to the Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism that existed in Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine at the end of the 16th century. Uniatism is introduced. And finally, Jews and Tatars living within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania professed Judaism and Islam, respectively.

At the turn of the 15th-16th centuries, as evidenced by sources and available literature on this issue, Western Orthodoxy was in a state close to crisis. The Orthodox clergy (especially its upper strata) directed all their energy to expanding their land holdings and increasing their privileges. It cared little not only about education, culture, but also about religion itself. Sources of the end of the XV - beginning of the XVI century. testify to the "great rudeness and non-balance" of Orthodox priests.

Skaryna began his career at a time when the contradictions between Orthodoxy and Catholicism and the social forces behind these two religions had not yet become sufficiently aggravated. Meanwhile, from the second half of the sixteenth century. the process of feudal-Catholic reaction intensifies. The activities of the Catholic Church and its vanguard, the Jesuit order, led and directed by the Vatican, are being activated. During the second half of the XVI-XVII century. the Catholic Church in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, with the support of kings and feudal lords, not only became a major landowner, but also made quite successful attempts to take all means of ideological influence into their own hands, acquire a monopoly on education, concentrate printing houses in their hands, establish strict censorship of the press, etc. .d.

Closely connected with his class environment, its ideological aspirations, Skorina is not an accidental figure in the history of culture, social and philosophical thought of the East Slavic peoples, he acts as an ideologist of the progressive strata of society, who managed to look into the historical perspective, outline some significant points in the subsequent development of society.

It was Skorina who first drew the educational program of the “seven free sciences” for national education, which was then adopted by fraternal schools, developed and improved by professors of the Kiev-Mohyla and Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy and played a significant role in the development of the East Slavic education system, philosophical thought rapprochement of national culture with the culture of the West.

F. Skorina stood at the origins of spiritual secularism and Europeanization.

Publisher of the famous “Russian Bible”, educator-scribe. For Skaryna, the Bible is a collection of divinely revealed knowledge and a source of “seven sciences liberated” - grammar, logic, rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy. Job and the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, rhetoric - Proverbs of Solomon, etc.

Skaryna's sociological and philosophical views are contained in the prefaces and afterwords, which he placed in all the biblical books he translated.

The prefaces and Tales of F. Skaryna to the books of the Holy Scriptures are of great interest and have no analogues (a common preface-interpretation to all biblical books appeared in the Elisabeth Bible in 1751).

In the preface to the book Job, Job by Skaryna does not appear as a grain of sand lost among the universal myriads, as in the cosmogony of J. Bruno, but is in direct dialogue with the Creator, who is promised salvation and adoption.

Skorina's exegesis, inheriting the best early Christian traditions, usually reveals in the text not an external eventual, literal, but a deeply antitypical, symbolic meaning.

The genre of prefaces, their rich connecting palette, their structural and syncretic diversity can be truly understood only on the basis of pedagogical, philosophical and exegetical ideas. Skaryn, finally, from the importance he attached to each of the books of Holy Scripture in the matter of spiritual enlightenment and correction of the morals of the "common people".

Starting to translate into the "folk language" and print copies of the books of Holy Scripture, the Belarusian educator foresaw the onset of a new stage of acquaintance with the Bible - not from the preaching of experienced theologians, but from independent reading, fraught with the danger of a simplified understanding of the books of Holy Scripture. According to the idea of ​​the Belarusian theologian, in order to prevent a simplified interpretation, the translation and edition of the biblical text should have been accompanied by an appropriate commentary and analytical apparatus. And, in essence, we see that Skaryna's preface is developing from a service genre into a syncretic genre, where, along with information of a theological, historical, lexicographic nature, an important place is occupied by the interpretation of the antitypical-allegorical content of biblical books.

Afterwords as the final element in Skaryna's system also play a rich informative role. In them, despite the lapidary form, the interpretation of the biblical content, begun in the preface, often continues.

Laconic afterwords complete each of the Prague Old Testament editions. The set of information contained here is approximately the same: the title of the book, the name of the translator and publisher, the place and time of publication. According to the afterword scheme, they could also repeat each other, because only the titles of books and the time of publication changed in them. Skaryna, however, tries to avoid dull repetition, all his afterwords are different.

In one of them, before the name of the first printer, there was a Latin adjective egregium in the meaning of "excellent, famous", in the second meaning of the word egregium was filed as George. This single form served as a basis for some researchers to believe that Skaryna's real name was George. And only in 1995, the Belarusian historian and bibliologist Georgy Golenchenko found the original text of Sigismund's privilege, in which the well-known fragment “with Georgy” was stated as follows: "...egregium Francisci Scorina de Poloczko artium et medicine doctoris". The scribal error caused a controversy over the name of the first printer, which lasted for more than 100 years.

He received his primary education in Polotsk. He studied Latin at the school of the Bernardine monks, which worked at the monastery.

Presumably, in 1504 he became a student at the Krakow Academy (University), but the exact date of admission to the university is unknown. In 1506, Skaryna graduated from the Faculty of Free Arts with a bachelor's degree, later received the title of licentiate of medicine and the degree of Doctor of Free Arts.

After that, for another five years, Skaryna studied in Krakow at the Faculty of Medicine, and defended the degree of Doctor of Medicine on November 9, 1512, having successfully passed the exams at the University of Padua in Italy, where there were enough specialists to confirm this defense. Contrary to popular belief, Skaryna did not study at the University of Padua, but arrived there precisely to pass the exam for a scientific degree, as evidenced by the university record dated November 5, 1512: “... a certain very learned poor young man, a doctor of arts, came from very distant countries, perhaps four thousand miles or more from this glorious city, in order to increase the glory and splendor of Padua, as well as the flourishing collection of philosophers of the gymnasium and the saint our College. He turned to the College with a request to allow him, as a gift and a special favor, to undergo the grace of God for trials in the field of medicine at this holy College. If, Your Excellencies, if you permit, I will introduce him himself. The young man and the aforementioned doctor bears the name of Mr. Francis, the son of the late Luka Skaryna from Polotsk, Rusyn ... " On November 6, 1512, Skaryna passed trial tests, and on November 9, he brilliantly passed a special exam and received medical dignity.

In 1525, the last master of the Teutonic Order, Albrecht of Brandenburg, secularized the Order and proclaimed a secular Duchy of Prussia, vassal to the Kingdom of Poland. The master was fascinated by reformist changes, which primarily concerned the church and school. For book publishing Albrecht in 1529 or 1530 invited Francysk Skaryna to Königsberg. The Duke himself writes: “Not so long ago, we received the glorious husband Francis Skorina from Polotsk, doctor of medicine, the most respected of your citizens, who arrived in our possession and the Principality of Prussia, as our subject, nobleman and faithful servant we love. Further, since the affairs, property, wife, children whom he left with you are from here his name is, then, leaving there, he humbly asked us to entrust your guardianship by our letter ... " .

In 1529, the elder brother of Francysk Skaryna, Ivan, dies, whose creditors put forward property claims to Francis himself (apparently, hence the hasty departure with a letter of recommendation from Duke Albrecht). Skaryna returned to Vilna, taking with him a printer and a Jewish doctor. The purpose of the act is unknown, but Duke Albrecht was offended by the “stealing” of specialists and already on May 26, 1530, in a letter to the governor of Vilna, Albrecht Gashtold, demanded the return of people.

On February 5, 1532, the creditors of the late Ivan Skaryna, having filed a complaint with the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund I, achieved the arrest of Francis for his brother's debts under the pretext that Skorina supposedly hid the property inherited from the deceased and constantly moved from place to place (although in fact, Ivan's son Roman was the heir). Francysk Skaryna spent several months in a Poznań prison until his nephew Roman got a meeting with the king, to whom he explained the matter. On May 24, 1532, Sigismund I issued a decree on the release of Francysk Skaryna from prison. On June 17, the Poznan court finally decided the case in favor of Skaryna. And on November 21 and 25, Sigismund, having sorted out the case with the help of Bishop Jan, issues two privileges, according to which Francysk Skaryna is not only found innocent and receives freedom, but also all kinds of benefits - protection from any prosecution (except by royal order), protection from arrests and full inviolability of property, exemption from duties and city services, as well as "from the jurisdiction and power of each and every one individually - the governor, castellan, elders and other dignitaries, judges and all sorts of judges" .

In 1534, Francysk Skaryna undertook a trip to the Grand Duchy of Moscow, from where he was expelled as a Catholic. From a Polish document dated 1552 by the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund II August to Albert Krichka, his ambassador in Rome under Pope Julius III, it follows that the books of Skaryna in Moscow were burned for Latinism.

Around 1535 Skaryna moved to Prague, where he most likely worked as a doctor or, unlikely, as a gardener at the royal court. The widespread version that Skaryna held the position of royal gardener at the invitation of King Ferdinand I and founded the famous garden on Gradchany has no serious grounds. Czech researchers, followed by foreign architectural historians, adhere to the canonical theory that the "Garden on the Castle" was founded in 1534 by invited Italians Giovanni Spazio and Francesco Bonaforde. The proximity of the names Francesco - Francis gave rise to a version of the gardening activities of Skaryna, especially since the correspondence between Ferdinand I and the Bohemian Chamber clearly states: “master Francis”, “Italian gardener”, who received a payment and left Prague around 1539. However, in the letter of 1552 of Ferdinand I to the son of the then deceased Francysk Skaryna Simeon, there is the phrase "our gardener". What Francysk Skaryna actually did in Prague in the last years of his life is not exactly known. Most likely, he practiced as a doctor.

The exact date of his death has not been established, most scientists suggest that Skaryna died around 1551, since in 1552 his son Simeon Rus (a doctor, like his father Francis) came to Prague for an inheritance.

Books

The language in which Francysk Skaryna printed his books was based on Church Slavonic, but with a large number of Belarusian words, and was therefore most understood by the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. For a long time, there were discussions among Belarusian linguists about what language Skaryna translated books into: into the Belarusian edition (excerpt) of the Church Slavonic language or into the church style of the Old Belarusian language. At present, Belarusian linguists agree that the language of Francysk Skaryna's translations of the Bible is the Belarusian edition (revision) of the Church Slavonic language. At the same time, the influence of the Czech and Polish languages ​​was noticed in the works of Skaryna.

Fonts and engraved headpieces from the Vilna printing house Skaryna were used by book publishers for another hundred years.

views

The views of Francysk Skaryna testify to him as an educator, patriot, humanist. In the texts of the Bible, the educator Skaryna appears as a person who contributes to the expansion of writing and knowledge. This is evidenced by his call to reading: “And every person needs honor, because he eats the mirror of our life, the medicine of the soul, the fun of all troubled ones, they are in troubles and in weaknesses, true hope ...”. Francysk Skaryna is the initiator of a new understanding of patriotism: as love and respect for one's Fatherland. From a patriotic position, the following words of his are perceived: “Because from birth, animals walking in the desert know their pits, birds flying through the air know their nests; the fish swimming in the sea and in the rivers can smell their own vira; bees and the like to harrow their hives - so are people, and where they were born and nourished, according to Bose, to that place they have a great affection ".

The humanist Skaryna left his moral testament in the following lines, which contain the wisdom of human life and human relationships: “The law born in that is painfully observed: then repair to others everything that you yourself like to eat from everyone else, in total, do not repair to others what you yourself don’t want from others to have ... This law, born, eats in the heart of a single person.”.

The prefaces and afterwords in the Bible of Francysk Skaryna, where he reveals the deep meaning of biblical ideas, are saturated with concern for the reasonable ordering of society, the education of a person, and the establishment of a worthy life on earth.

Religion

It is not known exactly what confession Francysk Skaryna adhered to. There is no direct evidence in this regard, and the evidence of Skaryna himself has not been preserved. The only direct indication is the statement of the Uniate archimandrite Atanasius Anthony Selyava, the author of the polemical book Anteleuchus (Vilnya), who, addressing the Orthodox, wrote about the beginning of the Reformation in Belarus: "Before the union(Brest Church Union of 1596) there was Skaryna, the Hussite heretic, who printed books in Russian for you in Prague”.

Catholicism

There is also another curious document - a letter of recommendation from the Roman Cardinal Iosaph to the Archbishop of Polotsk about a certain John Chrysansom Skorin, written in Rome. It informs that the most illustrious and most venerable brother Ioann Chryzansom Skorina, who is to deliver the message to His Eminence the Archbishop of Polotsk, has been trained in "this city collegium" elevated to the rank of priest and "returns" into a diocese. Possibly, this Ioann Khrizansom Skaryna was from Polotsk and was a relative of Francysk Skaryna. It can be assumed that the Skorin clan was still Catholic. And then it looks quite logical that the first printer Skaryna bore the Catholic name Francis. However, it is worth noting that, although the document was originally published in 1558, later researcher G. Galenchenko found that the date was reported with an error and the document should be attributed to the 18th century. This is consistent with the realities mentioned in the document, in particular the existence of the Catholic diocese of Polotsk.

Orthodoxy

Memory

Gallery

Medal of Francysk Skaryna

Order Francisca Scorina.jpg

Order of Francysk Skaryna

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Notes

1. Tarasau, K.I. Voices and hours of Zhygimont Starog / Kastus Tarasau // Memory of the ancient legends: posts of the Belarusian minutiae / Kastus Tarasau. vyd. 2nd, given. Minsk, Polymya, 1994. P. 105. ISBN 5-345-00706-3
2. Galechanka G. Skaryna // Vyalikae Principality of Lithuania. Encyclopedia in 3 tons. - Mn. : BelEn, 2005. - Vol. 2: Academic Corps - Yatskevich. - S. 575-582. - 788 p. - ISBN 985-11-0378-0.
8. web.archive.org/web/20060909181030/starbel.narod.ru/skar_zhycc.rar Record of the University of Padua on the special examination of F. Skorina for the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences, November 9, 1512 // Collection of documents about the life and work of F. Skorina || According to the editor: Francysk Skaryna and his time. Encyclopedic reference book. Mn., 1990. S. 584-603. - El. version: 2002. HTML, RAR archive: 55 kb.
9. web.archive.org/web/20060909181030/starbel.narod.ru/skar_zhycc.rar Record of the University of Padua on the admission of F. Skorina to the test for the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences, November 6, 1512 // Collection of documents about the life and work of F. Skaryna || According to the editor: Francysk Skaryna and his time. Encyclopedic reference book. Mn., 1990. S. 584-603. - El. version: 2002. HTML, RAR archive: 55 kb.
11. Viktor Korbut.// Belarus today. - Mn. , 2014. - No. 233(24614) .
12. web.archive.org/web/20060909181030/starbel.narod.ru/skar_zhycc.rar Letter from Duke Albrecht to the Vilna magistrate in defense of Skaryna, May 18, 1530 // Collection of documents about the life and work of F. Skorina || According to the editor: Francysk Skaryna and his time. Encyclopedic reference book. Mn., 1990. S. 584-603. - El. version: 2002. HTML, RAR archive: 55 kb.
13. web.archive.org/web/20060909181030/starbel.narod.ru/skar_zhycc.rar The Second Privileged Certificate of the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund I in defense of F. Skorina // Collection of documents about the life and work of F. Skorina || According to the editor: Francysk Skaryna and his time. Encyclopedic reference book. Mn., 1990. S. 584-603. - El. version: 2002. HTML, RAR archive: 55 kb.
14. See letter. // Collection of documents about the life and work of F. Skaryna || According to the editor: Francysk Skaryna and his time. Encyclopedic reference book. Mn., 1990. S. 584-603. - El. version: 2002. HTML, RAR archive: 55 kb.
15. L. Aleshina.
16. [Tarasau, K.I. Voices and hours of Zhygimont Starog / Kastus Tarasau // Memory of the ancient legends: posts of the Belarusian minutiae / Kastus Tarasau. vyd. 2nd, given. Minsk, Polymya, 1994. S. 106. ISBN 5-345-00706-3]
17. Correspondence of the Bohemian Chamber with King Ferdinand I // Collection of documents about the life and work of F. Skaryna || According to the editor: Francysk Skaryna and his time. Encyclopedic reference book. Mn., 1990. S. 584-603. - El. version: 2002. HTML, RAR archive:
18. Authorization letter of King Ferdinand I, issued to the son of F. Skorina Simeon, January 29, 1552 // Collection of documents about the life and work of F. Skorina || According to the editor: Francysk Skaryna and his time. Encyclopedic reference book. Mn., 1990. S. 584-603. - El. version: 2002. HTML, RAR archive:
20. Panov S.V. Francysk Skaryna - Ukrainian Slavic and Belarusian humanist and astronomer // Materials on the History of Belarus. 8th issued, perapratsavanae. -Mn.: Aversev, 2005. S. 89-92. ISBN 985-478-881-4
21. Nemirovsky E. L. Francis Skorina. Mn., 1990.
23. web.archive.org/web/20060909181030/starbel.narod.ru/skar_zhycc.rar Fragment from the instruction of the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund II Augustus to his ambassador Albert Krichka under Pope Julius III about burning in Moscow the books of the "Bible" published on Russian language, 1552 // Collection of documents about the life and work of F. Skorina || According to the editor: Francysk Skaryna and his time. Encyclopedic reference book. Mn., 1990. S. 584-603. - El. version: 2002. HTML, RAR archive: 55 kb.
24. Picheta V.I. Belarus and Lithuania XV-XVI centuries. M., 1961.
25. web.archive.org/web/20060909181030/starbel.narod.ru/skar_zhycc.rar Recommendation of the Roman Cardinal Iosaph to the Archbishop of Polotsk for John Chrysastom Skorin (April 25, 1558, Rome) // Collection of documents about the life and work of F. Skorina | | According to the editor: Francysk Skaryna and his time. Encyclopedic reference book. Mn., 1990. S. 584-603. - El. version: 2002. HTML, RAR archive: 55 kb.
26. Galenchanka George (Minsk). Problematic documents of Skaryniyana ў kantekstse realnaya krytki. U: 480 years of the Belarusian book: Materials of the Tretsih Skarynaўskіh chitanyaў / Gal. red. A. Maldzis and insh. - Minsk: Belarusian science, 1998. (Belarusika = Albaruthenica; Book 9).
27. www.hramvsr.by/hoteev-reformation.php Khoteev A.(priest) Reformation in Belarus in the 16th century. and neo-charismatic aspirations
28. presidium.bas-net.by/S/SR.htm Agievich Vl. Vl. Skoryna incognitus… seu incomprehensus. Institute of Philosophy and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Minsk, 1994-1999
29. Ulyakhin M. A complete biography of George (Doctor of Medical and Free Sciences Francis) Skaryna. - Polotsk: Legacy of F. Skorina, 1994. - P. 9 −10.
30. archive.is/20120724015525/starbel.narod.ru/skar_zhycc.rar Record of the University of Padua about the special examination of F. Skorina for the degree of doctor of medical sciences, November 9, 1512 // Collection of documents about the life and work of F. Skorina || According to the editor: Francysk Skaryna and his time. Encyclopedic reference book. Mn., 1990. S. 584-603. - El. version: 2002. HTML, RAR archive: 55 kb.
31. archive.is/20120724015525/starbel.narod.ru/skar_zhycc.rar Fragment of Bartholomew Kopitar's discussions about F. Skaryna's meeting in Wittenberg with M. Luther and F. Melanchthon. (Lat., Slovakia, 1839) // Collection of documents about the life and work of F. Skorina || According to the editor: Francysk Skaryna and his time. Encyclopedic reference book. Mn., 1990. S. 584-603. - El. version: 2002. HTML, RAR archive: 55 kb.

Literature

• Vladimirov P.V. Dr. Francysk Skaryna: His translations, publications and language. - St. Petersburg. , 1888.
• Chatyrokhsotletstse Belarusian druk, 1525-1925. - Mn. , 1926. (Belarusian)
• Aleksyutovich M. A. Skaryna, yago dzeynasts and light-gazer. - Mn. , 1958. (Belarusian)
• 450 year of the Belarusian book handed. - Mn. , 1968. (Belarusian)
• Anichenka U.V. Elephant of the language of Skaryna. - T. 1-3. - Mn. , 1977-1994. (Belarusian)
• Maldzis A. Francysk Skaryna is like a prihіlnik zblіzhennya and ўzaemazedennya lyudzeі narodў. - Mn. , 1988. (Belarusian)
• Francysk Skaryna and Iago Hour: Encyclopedic Davedednik. - Mn. , 1988. (Belarusian)
• Francysk Skaryna: 3 collection of documents and materials. - Mn. , 1988. (Belarusian)
• Engravings by Francysk Skaryna. - Mn. , 1990. (Belarusian)
• Spadchyna Skaryny: 3rd collection of materials from the first Skarynovsky readings (1986). - Mn. , 1989. (Belarusian)
• Kauka A. My people are here: Francishak Skaryna and Belarusian Literature XVI - patch. XX century. - Mn. , 1989. (Belarusian)
• Loiko O. A. Skorina / Authorization. per. from Belarusian. G. Bubnova .. - M .: Young Guard, 1989. - 352, p. - (Life of remarkable people. A series of biographies. Issue 2 (693)). - 150,000 copies. - ISBN 5-235-00675-5.(in trans.)
• Tumash V. Five Stagodzyaў Skaryniyany, XVI-XX: [Bibliagr.]. - New York, 1989. (Belarusian)
• Bulyka A. M., Zhuraўsky A. I., Svyazhynsky U. M. Mova issued by Francysk Skaryna. - Mn. , 1990. (Belarusian)
• Conan W.M. Godly and human wisdom: (Francishak Skaryna: live, be creative, look at the light). - Mn. , 1990. (Belarusian)
• Labyntsau Yu. Pachatae Skarynam: Belarusian ancient literature of the Renaissance epoch. - Mn. , 1990. (Belarusian)
• Labyntsau Yu. Skarynaўskі kalyandar: (Yes, 500th day of F. Skaryna's narajenne). - 2 vyd. - Mn. , 1990. (Belarusian)
• Mova issued by Francysk Skaryna / A. M. Bulyka, A.I. Zhuraўsky, U. M. Svyazhynsky. - Mn. : Science and technology, 1990. (Belarusian)
• Podokshin S. A. Francysk Skaryna. - M .: Thought, 1981. - 216 p. - (Thinkers of the past). - 80,000 copies.(reg.)
• Padokshyn S. A. Philosophical Thought of the Epoch of Adrazhennya in Belarus: The Hell of Francysk Skaryna and Simyaon Polatskag. - Mn. , 1990. (Belarusian)
• Skaryna and Iago era. - Mn. , 1990. (Belarusian)
• Francysk Skaryna: Zhytstse i dzeynasts: Pokazalnik of Literature. - Mn. , 1990. (Belarusian)
• Chamyarytsky V. A. Belarusian tytan of the Adragen era. - M ., 1990. (Belarusian)
• Dvarchanin I. Frantishak Skaryna as a cultured dzeyach and humanist in the Belarusian field / transl. from Czech language. - Mn. , 1991. (Belarusian)
• Galenchanka G. Ya.. - Mn. , 1993. (Belarusian)
• Records of the Belarusian Institute of Science and Art. - Prince. 21. - New York, 1994. (Belarusian)
• Skaryna Francysk // Thoughts and Aspects of Belarus, X-XIX centuries. : Encyclopedic Davednik. - Mn. : BelEn, 1995. - 671 p. (Belarusian)
• Francysk Skaryna: Zhytstse i dzeynasts: Pokazalnik of Literature. Dadatki for 1530-1988, 1989-1993 - Mn. , 1995. (Belarusian)
• Yaskevich A. A. Creations of F. Skaryna: Genre structure. Filasovsky glances. Mastery of the word. - Mn. , 1995. (Belarusian)
• Belarus = Albaruthenica. - Prince. 9.: 480 year of the Belarusian book: Materials of the 3rd Skarynaўskіh readings. - Mn. , 1998. (Belarusian)
• Agievich U. U. Symbols of Skaryna's engraving. - Mn. , 1999. (Belarusian)
• Skaryna Francysk // Asvetnіki zemlі Belaruskaj: Entsyklapedychny davednik. / Pad red. W. M. Zhuk. - Mn. : BelEn, 2001. - 496 p. (Belarusian)
• Galechanka G. Ya.// Russian and Slavic Studies: Journal. - 2007. - Issue. 2. (Belarusian)

Links

• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
• Skaryna Francis- article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
• (Belarusian)
• (Belarusian)
• - photographs of old printed books. Skaryna's editions are given under numbers 14-23, 26-35, 39-59 and 61.

An excerpt characterizing Skaryna, Francis

Along the lanes of Khamovniki, the prisoners walked alone with their escort and the wagons and wagons that belonged to the escorts and rode behind; but, having gone out to the grocery stores, they found themselves in the middle of a huge, closely moving artillery convoy, mixed with private wagons.
At the very bridge, everyone stopped, waiting for those who were riding in front to advance. From the bridge, the prisoners opened behind and in front of endless rows of other moving convoys. To the right, where the Kaluga road curved past Neskuchny, disappearing into the distance, stretched endless ranks of troops and convoys. These were the troops of the Beauharnais corps that had come out first; Behind, along the embankment and across the Stone Bridge, Ney's troops and wagon trains stretched.
Davout's troops, to which the prisoners belonged, went through the Crimean ford and already partly entered Kaluga Street. But the carts were so stretched out that the last trains of Beauharnais had not yet left Moscow for Kaluzhskaya Street, and the head of Ney's troops was already leaving Bolshaya Ordynka.
Having passed the Crimean ford, the prisoners moved several steps and stopped, and again moved, and on all sides the carriages and people became more and more embarrassed. After walking for more than an hour those several hundred steps that separate the bridge from Kaluzhskaya Street, and having reached the square where Zamoskvoretsky Streets converge with Kaluzhskaya Street, the prisoners, squeezed into a heap, stopped and stood for several hours at this intersection. From all sides was heard the incessant, like the sound of the sea, the rumble of wheels, and the tramp of feet, and incessant angry cries and curses. Pierre stood pressed against the wall of the charred house, listening to this sound, which in his imagination merged with the sounds of the drum.
Several captured officers, in order to see better, climbed the wall of the burnt house, near which Pierre was standing.
- To the people! Eka to the people! .. And they piled on the guns! Look: furs ... - they said. “Look, you bastards, they robbed him… There, behind him, on a cart… After all, this is from an icon, by God!.. It must be the Germans. And our muzhik, by God!.. Ah, scoundrels! Here they are, the droshky - and they captured! .. Look, he sat down on the chests. Fathers! .. Fight! ..
- So it's in the face then, in the face! So you can't wait until evening. Look, look ... and this, of course, is Napoleon himself. You see, what horses! in monograms with a crown. This is a folding house. Dropped the bag, can't see. They fought again ... A woman with a child, and not bad. Yes, well, they will let you through... Look, there is no end. Russian girls, by God, girls! In the carriages, after all, how calmly they sat down!
Again, a wave of general curiosity, as near the church in Khamovniki, pushed all the prisoners to the road, and Pierre, thanks to his growth over the heads of others, saw what had so attracted the curiosity of the prisoners. In three carriages, intermingled between the charging boxes, they rode, closely sitting on top of each other, discharged, in bright colors, rouged, something screaming with squeaky voices of a woman.
From the moment Pierre realized the appearance of a mysterious force, nothing seemed strange or scary to him: neither a corpse smeared with soot for fun, nor these women hurrying somewhere, nor the conflagration of Moscow. Everything that Pierre now saw made almost no impression on him - as if his soul, preparing for a difficult struggle, refused to accept impressions that could weaken it.
The train of women has passed. Behind him again trailed carts, soldiers, wagons, soldiers, decks, carriages, soldiers, boxes, soldiers, occasionally women.
Pierre did not see people separately, but saw their movement.
All these people, the horses seemed to be driven by some invisible force. All of them, during the hour during which Pierre watched them, floated out of different streets with the same desire to pass quickly; they all the same, colliding with others, began to get angry, fight; white teeth bared, eyebrows frowned, the same curses were thrown over and over, and on all faces there was the same youthfully resolute and cruelly cold expression, which struck Pierre in the morning at the sound of a drum on the corporal's face.
Already before evening, the escort commander gathered his team and, shouting and arguing, squeezed into the carts, and the prisoners, surrounded on all sides, went out onto the Kaluga road.
They walked very quickly, without resting, and stopped only when the sun had already begun to set. The carts moved one on top of the other, and people began to prepare for the night. Everyone seemed angry and unhappy. For a long time, curses, angry cries and fights were heard from different sides. The carriage, which was riding behind the escorts, advanced on the escorts' wagon and pierced it with a drawbar. Several soldiers from different directions ran to the wagon; some beat on the heads of the horses harnessed to the carriage, turning them, others fought among themselves, and Pierre saw that one German was seriously wounded in the head with a cleaver.
It seemed that all these people now experienced, when they stopped in the middle of the field in the cold twilight of an autumn evening, the same feeling of unpleasant awakening from the haste that gripped everyone upon leaving and impetuous movement somewhere. Stopping, everyone seemed to understand that it was still unknown where they were going, and that this movement would be a lot of hard and difficult.
The escorts treated the prisoners at this halt even worse than when they set out. At this halt, for the first time, the meat food of the captives was issued with horse meat.
From the officers to the last soldier, it was noticeable in everyone, as it were, a personal bitterness against each of the prisoners, which so unexpectedly replaced the previously friendly relations.
This exasperation intensified even more when, when counting the prisoners, it turned out that during the bustle, leaving Moscow, one Russian soldier, pretending to be sick from his stomach, fled. Pierre saw how a Frenchman beat a Russian soldier because he moved far from the road, and heard how the captain, his friend, reprimanded the non-commissioned officer for the escape of a Russian soldier and threatened him with a court. To the excuse of the non-commissioned officer that the soldier was sick and could not walk, the officer said that he was ordered to shoot those who would fall behind. Pierre felt that the fatal force that crushed him during the execution and which was invisible during captivity now again took possession of his existence. He was scared; but he felt how, in proportion to the efforts made by the fatal force to crush him, a force of life independent of it grew and grew stronger in his soul.
Pierre dined on rye flour soup with horse meat and talked with his comrades.
Neither Pierre nor any of his comrades spoke about what they saw in Moscow, nor about the rudeness of the treatment of the French, nor about the order to shoot, which was announced to them: everyone was, as if in rebuff to the deteriorating situation, especially lively and cheerful . They talked about personal memories, about funny scenes seen during the campaign, and hushed up conversations about the present situation.
The sun has long since set. Bright stars lit up somewhere in the sky; the red, fire-like glow of the rising full moon spread over the edge of the sky, and the huge red ball oscillated surprisingly in the grayish haze. It became light. The evening was already over, but the night had not yet begun. Pierre got up from his new comrades and went between the fires to the other side of the road, where, he was told, the captured soldiers were standing. He wanted to talk to them. On the road, a French sentry stopped him and ordered him to turn back.
Pierre returned, but not to the fire, to his comrades, but to the unharnessed wagon, which had no one. He crossed his legs and lowered his head, sat down on the cold ground at the wheel of the wagon, and sat motionless for a long time, thinking. More than an hour has passed. Nobody bothered Pierre. Suddenly he burst out laughing with his thick, good-natured laugh so loudly that people from different directions looked around in surprise at this strange, obviously lonely laugh.
– Ha, ha, ha! Pierre laughed. And he said aloud to himself: “The soldier didn’t let me in.” Caught me, locked me up. I am being held captive. Who me? Me! Me, my immortal soul! Ha, ha, ha! .. Ha, ha, ha! .. - he laughed with tears in his eyes.
Some man got up and came up to see what this strange big man alone was laughing about. Pierre stopped laughing, got up, moved away from the curious and looked around him.
Previously, loudly noisy with the crackling of fires and the talk of people, the huge, endless bivouac subsided; the red fires of the fires went out and grew pale. High in the bright sky stood a full moon. Forests and fields, previously invisible outside the camp, now opened up in the distance. And even farther than these forests and fields could be seen a bright, oscillating, inviting endless distance. Pierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the departing, playing stars. “And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me! thought Pierre. “And they caught all this and put it in a booth, fenced off with boards!” He smiled and went to bed with his comrades.

In the first days of October, another truce came to Kutuzov with a letter from Napoleon and an offer of peace, deceptively signified from Moscow, while Napoleon was already not far ahead of Kutuzov, on the old Kaluga road. Kutuzov answered this letter in the same way as the first one sent from Lauriston: he said that there could be no talk of peace.
Soon after this, from the partisan detachment of Dorokhov, who was walking to the left of Tarutin, a report was received that troops had appeared in Fominsky, that these troops consisted of Brusier's division, and that this division, separated from other troops, could easily be exterminated. Soldiers and officers again demanded activity. Staff generals, excited by the memory of the ease of victory at Tarutin, insisted on Kutuzov's execution of Dorokhov's proposal. Kutuzov did not consider any offensive necessary. The average came out, that which was to be accomplished; a small detachment was sent to Fominsky, which was supposed to attack Brussier.
By a strange chance, this appointment - the most difficult and most important, as it turned out later - was received by Dokhturov; that same modest, little Dokhturov, whom no one described to us as making battle plans, flying in front of regiments, throwing crosses at batteries, etc., who was considered and called indecisive and impenetrable, but the same Dokhturov, whom during all the Russian wars with the French, from Austerlitz and up to the thirteenth year, we find commanders wherever only the situation is difficult. In Austerlitz, he remains the last at the Augusta dam, gathering regiments, saving what is possible when everything is running and dying and not a single general is in the rearguard. He, sick with a fever, goes to Smolensk with twenty thousand to defend the city against the entire Napoleonic army. In Smolensk, he had barely dozed off at the Molokhov Gates, in a paroxysm of fever, he was awakened by the cannonade across Smolensk, and Smolensk held out all day. On Borodino day, when Bagration was killed and the troops of our left flank were killed in the ratio of 9 to 1 and the entire force of the French artillery was sent there, no one else was sent, namely the indecisive and impenetrable Dokhturov, and Kutuzov was in a hurry to correct his mistake when he sent there another. And the small, quiet Dokhturov goes there, and Borodino is the best glory of the Russian army. And many heroes are described to us in verse and prose, but almost not a word about Dokhturov.
Again Dokhturov is sent there to Fominsky and from there to Maly Yaroslavets, to the place where the last battle with the French took place, and to the place from which, obviously, the death of the French already begins, and again many geniuses and heroes describe to us during this period of the campaign , but not a word about Dokhturov, or very little, or doubtful. This silence about Dokhturov most obviously proves his merits.
Naturally, for a person who does not understand the movement of the machine, at the sight of its operation, it seems that the most important part of this machine is that chip that accidentally fell into it and, interfering with its movement, is rattling in it. A person who does not know the structure of the machine cannot understand that not this spoiling and interfering chip, but that small transmission gear that turns inaudibly is one of the most essential parts of the machine.
On October 10, on the very day Dokhturov walked halfway to Fominsky and stopped in the village of Aristovo, preparing to execute the given order exactly, the entire French army, in its convulsive movement, reached the position of Murat, as it seemed, in order to give the battle, suddenly, for no reason, turned to the left onto the new Kaluga road and began to enter Fominsky, in which only Brussier had previously stood. Dokhturov under command at that time had, in addition to Dorokhov, two small detachments of Figner and Seslavin.
On the evening of October 11, Seslavin arrived in Aristovo to the authorities with a captured French guard. The prisoner said that the troops that had now entered Fominsky were the vanguard of the entire large army, that Napoleon was right there, that the entire army had already left Moscow for the fifth day. That same evening, a courtyard man who came from Borovsk told how he saw the entry of a huge army into the city. Cossacks from the Dorokhov detachment reported that they saw the French guards walking along the road to Borovsk. From all this news, it became obvious that where they thought to find one division, there was now the entire French army, marching from Moscow in an unexpected direction - along the old Kaluga road. Dokhturov did not want to do anything, because it was not clear to him now what his duty was. He was ordered to attack Fominsky. But in Fominsky there used to be only Brussier, now there was the whole French army. Yermolov wanted to do as he pleased, but Dokhturov insisted that he needed to have an order from his Serene Highness. It was decided to send a report to headquarters.
For this, an intelligent officer, Bolkhovitinov, was chosen, who, in addition to a written report, was supposed to tell the whole story in words. At twelve o'clock in the morning, Bolkhovitinov, having received an envelope and a verbal order, galloped, accompanied by a Cossack, with spare horses to the main headquarters.

The night was dark, warm, autumnal. It has been raining for the fourth day. Having changed horses twice and galloping thirty miles along a muddy, viscous road in an hour and a half, Bolkhovitinov was at Letashevka at two o'clock in the morning. Climbing down at the hut, on the wattle fence of which there was a sign: "General Staff", and leaving the horse, he entered the dark passage.
- The general on duty soon! Very important! he said to someone who was getting up and snuffling in the darkness of the passage.
“From the evening they were very unwell, they didn’t sleep for the third night,” whispered the orderly voice intercessively. “Wake up the captain first.
“Very important, from General Dokhturov,” said Bolkhovitinov, entering the open door he felt for. The orderly went ahead of him and began to wake someone:
“Your honor, your honor is a courier.
- I'm sorry, what? from whom? said a sleepy voice.
- From Dokhturov and from Alexei Petrovich. Napoleon is in Fominsky,” said Bolkhovitinov, not seeing in the darkness the one who asked him, but from the sound of his voice, assuming that it was not Konovnitsyn.
The awakened man yawned and stretched.
“I don’t want to wake him up,” he said, feeling something. - Sick! Maybe so, rumors.
“Here is the report,” said Bolkhovitinov, “it was ordered to immediately hand it over to the general on duty.
- Wait, I'll light the fire. Where the hell are you always going to put it? - Turning to the batman, said the stretching man. It was Shcherbinin, Konovnitsyn's adjutant. “I found it, I found it,” he added.
The orderly cut down the fire, Shcherbinin felt the candlestick.
“Oh, the nasty ones,” he said in disgust.
By the light of the sparks, Bolkhovitinov saw the young face of Shcherbinin with a candle and in the front corner of a still sleeping man. It was Konovnitsyn.
When at first the sulphurous tinder lit up with a blue and then a red flame, Shcherbinin lit a tallow candle, from the candlestick of which the Prussians gnawed at it ran, and examined the messenger. Bolkhovitinov was covered in mud and, wiping himself with his sleeve, smeared his face.
- Who delivers? Shcherbinin said, taking the envelope.
“The news is true,” said Bolkhovitinov. - And the prisoners, and the Cossacks, and scouts - all unanimously show the same thing.
“There is nothing to do, we must wake up,” said Shcherbinin, getting up and going up to a man in a nightcap, covered with an overcoat. - Pyotr Petrovich! he said. Konovnitsyn did not move. - Headquarters! he said, smiling, knowing that these words would probably wake him up. And indeed, the head in the nightcap rose at once. On Konovnitsyn's handsome, hard face, with feverishly inflamed cheeks, for a moment there still remained an expression of dream dreams far removed from the present situation, but then he suddenly shuddered: his face assumed its usual calm and firm expression.
- Well, what is it? From whom? he asked slowly but immediately, blinking in the light. Listening to the officer's report, Konovnitsyn printed it out and read it. As soon as he read, he put his feet in woolen stockings on the dirt floor and began to put on shoes. Then he took off his cap and, combing his temples, put on his cap.
- Did you arrive soon? Let's go to the brightest.
Konovnitsyn immediately realized that the news he had brought was of great importance and that it was impossible to delay. Whether it was good or bad, he did not think and did not ask himself. It didn't interest him. He looked at the whole matter of the war not with the mind, not with reasoning, but with something else. There was a deep, unspoken conviction in his soul that everything would be fine; but that it is not necessary to believe this, and even more so, it is not necessary to say this, but one must only do one's own business. And he did his job, giving him all his strength.
Pyotr Petrovich Konovnitsyn, like Dokhturov, only as if out of decency included in the list of the so-called heroes of the 12th year - Barklaev, Raevsky, Yermolov, Platov, Miloradovich, just like Dokhturov, enjoyed the reputation of a person of very limited abilities and information, and, like Dokhturov, Konovnitsyn never made plans for battles, but was always where it was most difficult; always slept with the door open since he was appointed general on duty, ordering each sent one to wake himself up, he was always under fire during the battle, so that Kutuzov reproached him for this and was afraid to send him, and was, like Dokhturov, one of those inconspicuous gears which, without crackling or making noise, constitute the most essential part of the machine.
Coming out of the hut into the damp, dark night, Konovnitsyn frowned, partly from a worsening headache, partly from an unpleasant thought that had entered his head about how this whole nest of staff, influential people would now be excited at this news, especially Benigsen, after Tarutin, the former at knives with Kutuzov; how they will propose, argue, order, cancel. And this presentiment was unpleasant to him, although he knew that without it it was impossible.
Indeed, Tol, to whom he went to inform the new news, immediately began to express his thoughts to the general who lived with him, and Konovnitsyn, silently and wearily listening, reminded him that he had to go to his Serene Highness.

Kutuzov, like all old people, slept little at night. He often dozed off unexpectedly during the day; but at night, without undressing, lying on his bed, for the most part he did not sleep and thought.
And so he lay now on his bed, leaning his heavy, large, mutilated head on his plump arm, and thought, peering into the darkness with one open eye.
Since Benigsen, who corresponded with the sovereign and had the most strength in the headquarters, avoided him, Kutuzov was calmer in the sense that he and his troops would not be forced to again participate in useless offensive actions. The lesson of the Battle of Tarutino and its eve, painfully remembered by Kutuzov, should also have had an effect, he thought.
“They need to understand that we can only lose by being offensive. Patience and time, here are my warriors heroes! thought Kutuzov. He knew not to pick an apple while it was green. It will fall on its own when it is ripe, but if you pick green, you will spoil the apple and the tree, and you will set your teeth on edge. He, as an experienced hunter, knew that the beast was wounded, wounded in the way that the entire Russian force could wound, but mortally or not, this was not yet an elucidated question. Now, from the sendings of Loriston and Berthelemy and from the reports of the partisans, Kutuzov almost knew that he was mortally wounded. But more evidence was needed, it was necessary to wait.
“They want to run to see how they killed him. Wait, you'll see. All maneuvers, all attacks! he thought. - For what? All stand out. There's definitely something fun about fighting. They are like children from whom you will not get any sense, as was the case, because everyone wants to prove how they can fight. Yes, that's not the point now.
And what skillful maneuvers all these offer me! It seems to them that when they invented two or three accidents (he remembered the general plan from St. Petersburg), they invented them all. And they all have no number!
The unresolved question of whether the wound inflicted at Borodino was fatal or not was hanging over Kutuzov's head for a whole month. On the one hand, the French occupied Moscow. On the other hand, Kutuzov undoubtedly felt with all his being that the terrible blow in which he, along with all the Russian people, strained all his strength, should have been mortal. But in any case, evidence was needed, and he had been waiting for them for a month, and the more time passed, the more impatient he became. Lying on his bed in his sleepless nights, he did the very thing that these young generals did, the very thing for which he reproached them. He invented all possible accidents in which this true, already accomplished death of Napoleon would be expressed. He invented these accidents in the same way as young people, but with the only difference that he did not base anything on these assumptions and that he saw them not two or three, but thousands. The more he thought, the more they seemed. He invented all kinds of movements of the Napoleonic army, all or parts of it - towards Petersburg, against him, bypassing it, he invented (which he was most afraid of) and the chance that Napoleon would fight against him with his own weapons, that he would remain in Moscow waiting for him. Kutuzov even imagined the movement of the Napoleonic army back to Medyn and Yukhnov, but one thing he could not foresee was what happened, that insane, convulsive throwing of Napoleon's troops during the first eleven days of his speech from Moscow - throwing, which made possible something that Kutuzov still did not dare to think about then: the complete extermination of the French. Dorokhov's reports about Broussier's division, news from the partisans about the disasters of Napoleon's army, rumors about preparations for a march from Moscow - all confirmed the assumption that the French army was defeated and was about to flee; but these were only assumptions that seemed important to young people, but not to Kutuzov. With his sixty years of experience, he knew how much weight should be attributed to rumors, he knew how capable people who want something are to group all the news so that they seem to confirm what they want, and he knew how in this case they willingly miss everything that contradicts. And the more Kutuzov wanted this, the less he allowed himself to believe it. This question occupied all his mental strength. Everything else was for him only the usual fulfillment of life. Such habitual fulfillment and submission to life were his conversations with the staff, letters to mme Stael, which he wrote from Tarutino, reading novels, distributing awards, correspondence with St. Petersburg, etc. But the destruction of the French, foreseen by him alone, was his spiritual, only desire.
On the night of October 11, he lay leaning on his arm and thinking about it.
There was a stir in the next room, and the steps of Tolya, Konovnitsyn and Bolkhovitinov were heard.
- Hey, who's there? Get in, get in! What's new? the field marshal called out to them.
While the footman lit a candle, Tol told the contents of the news.
- Who brought it? - asked Kutuzov with a face that struck Tolya when the candle lit up with his cold severity.
“There can be no doubt, Your Grace.
- Call, call him here!
Kutuzov sat with one leg down from the bed and leaning his big belly on the other, bent leg. He squinted his sighted eye in order to better examine the messenger, as if he wanted to read in his features what interested him.
“Tell me, tell me, my friend,” he said to Bolkhovitinov in his quiet, old voice, closing the shirt that was open on his chest. - Come, come closer. What news did you bring me? A? Did Napoleon leave Moscow? Is it really so? A?
Bolkhovitinov reported in detail at first everything that he was ordered to.
“Speak, speak quickly, do not torment your soul,” Kutuzov interrupted him.
Bolkhovitinov told everything and fell silent, waiting for the order. Tol began to say something, but Kutuzov interrupted him. He wanted to say something, but suddenly his face narrowed, wrinkled; he, waving his hand at Tolya, turned in the opposite direction, towards the red corner of the hut, blackened by images.
- Lord, my creator! You heeded our prayer ... - he said in a trembling voice, folding his hands. - Saved Russia. Thank you Lord! And he cried.

From the time of this news until the end of the campaign, Kutuzov’s entire activity consists only in using power, cunning, and requests to keep his troops from useless offensives, maneuvers and clashes with a dying enemy. Dokhturov goes to Maloyaroslavets, but Kutuzov hesitates with the whole army and gives orders to clear Kaluga, a retreat beyond which seems to him very possible.
Kutuzov retreats everywhere, but the enemy, without waiting for his retreat, runs back in the opposite direction.
Historians of Napoleon describe to us his skillful maneuver on Tarutino and Maloyaroslavets and make assumptions about what would have happened if Napoleon had managed to penetrate into the rich midday provinces.
But apart from the fact that nothing prevented Napoleon from going to these midday provinces (since the Russian army gave him the way), historians forget that Napoleon's army could not be saved by anything, because it already carried in itself the inevitable conditions death. Why is this army, which found abundant food in Moscow and could not keep it, but trampled it underfoot, this army, which, having come to Smolensk, did not sort out food, but plundered it, why could this army recover in the Kaluga province, inhabited by those the same Russians as in Moscow, and with the same property of fire to burn what is lit?

Francysk Skaryna, a scientist, educator-humanist of the Renaissance, left an indelible mark on the history of Russian culture, in the history of social and philosophical thought of the East Slavic peoples. He was one of the most highly educated people of his time: he graduated from two universities (Krakow and Padua), spoke several languages ​​(besides his native Belarusian, he knew Lithuanian, Polish, Italian, German, Latin, Greek). He traveled a lot, his business trips were long and distant: he visited many European countries, visited more than a dozen cities. Skaryna was distinguished by an extraordinary breadth of views and depth of knowledge. He is a physician, botanist, philosopher, astronomer, writer, translator. And besides, he was a skilled "bookmaker" - publisher, editor, printer. And this side of his activity had a huge impact on the formation and development of Slavic printing. In the history of the domestic book business, Skaryna's activities are of particular importance. His first-born - "Psalter", published in Prague in 1517, is also the first Belarusian printed book. And the printing house, founded by him in Vilnius around 1522, is also the first printing house in the present territory of our country.

More than a century has passed since then. Time irretrievably erased many facts from the biography of the Belarusian pioneer in the memory of generations. The riddle arises at the very beginning of Skaryna's biography: the exact date of his birth is unknown (usually indicated: "around 1490", "before 1490"). But recently in the literature, the year of Skaryna's birth is increasingly called 1486. ​​This date was "calculated" as a result of the analysis of the publisher's mark - a small elegant engraving often found in his books depicting a solar disk and a crescent moon running on it. The researchers decided that the first printer depicted the “death of the Sun” (solar eclipse), thus indicating the day of his birth (in the homeland of Skaryna, a solar eclipse was observed on March 6, 1486).

Polotsk, where Skaryna was born, was at that time a large trade and craft city on the Western Dvina, which was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. There were about fifteen thousand inhabitants in the city, who were mainly engaged in blacksmithing, foundry, pottery, trade, fishing, and hunting. Skaryna's father was a merchant, selling leather and furs.

It is believed that Skaryna received his primary education in one of the Polotsk monastic schools. In the autumn of 1504 Skaryna went to Krakow. He successfully passes the entrance exams to the university and his name appears in the list of students - Francysk Lukich Skaryna from Polotsk. Skaryna studied at the faculty, where they studied traditional disciplines, reduced to a strict system of seven "free arts": grammar, rhetoric, dialectics (these are formal or verbal arts), arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy (real arts). In addition to these disciplines, Skorina studied theology, law, medicine, and ancient languages.

Krakow is the capital of the Kingdom of Poland, a city with a centuries-old Slavic culture. The flourishing of art, science, and education also contributed to the relatively early emergence of book printing here. At the beginning of the XVI century. There were twelve printing houses in Krakow. The publications of the Krakow printer Jan Haller, whose activities were most closely connected with the University of Krakow, were especially famous - the printer supplied him with teaching aids and literature. Possibly, Skaryna was familiar with Galler and received the first information about book publishing and book printing from him. Among those who awakened in young Skaryn a love for "black art" was the teacher of the faculty of "liberal arts", a humanist scientist Jan from Glogov, who himself showed an interest in printing.

Student years flew by quickly, and in 1506 Skaryna, having graduated from Krakow University, received the title of Bachelor of Liberal Arts and left Krakow.

At the beginning of 1967, the Academy of Sciences of the Byelorussian SSR received a package from Italy (from the University of Padua) - photocopies of documents and materials related to one important event in the life of Skaryna. Documents testify that in the autumn of 1512 a certain very learned, but poor young man, a doctor of arts, came to Padua from very distant countries ... and turned to the College with a request to allow him, as a gift and special favor, to be tested medicine". And further: "the young man and the aforementioned doctor bears the name of Francis, the son of the late Luka Skaryna from Polotsk." On November 5, the “Board of the Most Glorious Padua Doctors of Art and Medicine” admitted Skaryna to the tests, which took place on November 9 in the Bishop's Palace in the presence of the most prominent scientists of the University of Padua. The examinee withstood the test with brilliance, "commendably and flawlessly" answering questions, reasonably objecting to controversial remarks. The Board unanimously awarded him the title of Doctor of Medicine.

Being in Padua, Skaryna could not, of course, miss the opportunity to visit neighboring Venice - the universally recognized center of European book printing, a city with numerous printing houses and established book publishing traditions. At that time, the famous Aldus Manutius was still living and working in Venice, whose publications enjoyed pan-European fame. Undoubtedly, Skorina held an aldina in her hands, and perhaps, having become interested in the book business and making certain plans on this score, she met with the great publisher himself.

Nothing is known about the next five years of Skaryna's life. Where has he been all this time? What did you do during these years? Where did you go from Padua?

Scientists try to fill this gap with conjectures, assumptions. Some believe that Skaryna made trips as part of a diplomatic mission to the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen, and then to Vienna. Others believe that Skaryna visited Wallachia and Moldavia with the intention of setting up printing houses there. Still others claim that Skaryna came to Vilnius for a short time, where he tried to interest some wealthy citizens with his book publishing plans. Or maybe he immediately went from Padua to Prague with the firm intention to engage in book publishing? ..

So Prague. 151 7 By the middle of summer, Skorina had basically completed all the preliminary work related to the organization of the printing house, and they were ready to type the manuscript. On August 6, his first book, The Psalter, is published. The preface to the book says: “... I am Francysk Skaryna, the son of Polotsk in the medical sciences, the doctor ordered that the Psalter be embossed in Russian words and in the Slovenian language ...”

The Prague period of Skaryna's book publishing activity (1517-1519) was generally very eventful - he published nineteen more small books, which, together with the Psalter, made up a major publication - the Russian Bible. Already in his first books, he showed a subtle understanding of the nature of book art. Skorina perceived the book as an integral literary and artistic organism, where all design techniques and typographic materials used should fully correspond to the content of the book. The Prague editions of Skaryna in terms of artistic and technical design and typographic performance are not inferior to the best examples of European book publishers of that time and significantly surpass the previous books of the Church Slavonic press. Three books contain an engraving portrait of the publisher himself - Skaryna (you had to have a strong character to decide on such a daring act - to include an illustration of secular content in a liturgical book). The engraving is very elegant and, despite the many smallest details, the reader's attention is focused primarily on the human figure. Skaryna is depicted in a doctor's robe, an open book in front of him, rows of books to his right; there are a lot of tools and devices in the office: an hourglass, a lamp with a reflector, an armilary sphere - an astronomical goniometric instrument ... But the most significant feature of Skaryna's publications (not only Prague, but all subsequent ones) is the simplicity of the content: the text is always given in translation into colloquial folk language with the necessary comments and explanations.

Nothing is known about the Prague printing house of Skaryna. How was it equipped? Who else besides Skaryna himself worked in it? Only its approximate location can be established. In some of his books, Skaryna indicates where the printing house was located: “in the Old Town of Prague.” Perhaps among them the house where Skaryna began to print books was also lost.

Approximately in 1520, Skaryna moved to Vilnius, where "in the house of a respectable husband, the senior steward of the glorious and great place of Vilna" Yanub Babich founded a printing house and printed two books - "A Small Road Book" and "Apostle". Until recently, it was believed that both editions were published in the same year - 1525. Moreover, the following order was observed: first "Apostle", and then "Small Road Book". But at the end of the fifties of our century, a sensational discovery was made in the Royal Library in Copenhagen - a complete copy of Paschalia, the last part of the Little Travel Book, was discovered. And on the fourteenth sheet of the copy, a calendar for 1523 was printed. Thus, it was established that the “Small Road Book” was the first domestic printed book and it was published no later than 1522. This book is interesting in many respects. It was intended not only for liturgical purposes, but also for the needs of itinerant townspeople, merchants, and artisans. Small in format (8th part of a sheet) and volume, it contains a lot of generally useful advice on economic affairs, medicine, and practical astronomy. Compared to the Prague editions, the Vilnius books are much richer in design. Two-color printing is more widely used in them, the fonts are distinguished by great elegance. The books are decorated with a large number of large and small headpieces, the purpose of which was determined by the publisher himself: “Behind each kathisma there is a large headpiece, and for each chapter there is a smaller headpiece for a false division of the readers.” In other words, decorating the book, Skaryna sought not only to make it a highly artistic work of art, but also to help the reader quickly navigate the content.

In March 1525, Skaryna published The Apostle (the first domestic printed accurately dated book). On this, his publishing and printing activities, apparently, ceased. So far, no other books with his publishing mark have been found. The next event in the life of the Belarusian first printer has a purely mundane character: he gets married, participates in a lawsuit (the division of property). In 1530, Albrecht, Duke of Prussia, invites Skaryna to his service. Skaryna goes to Koenigsberg, but does not stay here for long: family affairs force him to return to Vilnius. Here he was again forced to participate in complex legal proceedings. For some time he served as secretary and personal physician of the Vilna Bishop. In the mid-thirties, Skaryna left for Prague and served as a doctor and gardener at the royal court. Francysk Skaryna died around 1540.