Francysk Skaryna

Францыск Скарына

Printer, Physician and Humanist Scholar · circa 1470–circa 1551

Who is Francysk Skaryna?

Francysk Skaryna was born in Polotsk and studied at the University of Kraków before earning a doctorate in medicine at the University of Padua in Italy. Between 1517 and 1519 in Prague he translated and printed a Bible in a Church Slavonic language close to the everyday speech of his homeland, producing the Bivlia Ruska (Ruthenian Bible), among the first printed books of the East Slavic world. He later established a printing house in Vilnius, publishing further religious texts with his own prefaces, in which he explained his editorial choices, rendered difficult terms into plainer language for ordinary readers, and articulated early ideas of civic duty and love of homeland. His preface passages, including his often-cited comparison of people's attachment to their birthplace with animals returning to their dens and nests, are considered landmarks of early Belarusian humanist thought. Skaryna is honored today as the founder of Belarusian and East Slavic book printing and a foundational figure of Belarusian national culture, with a university, medals, and numerous monuments named after him.

Sources: Francysk Skaryna, Bivlia Ruska prefaces (Prague, 1517-1519) · Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum archives · Encyclopedia Britannica, entry on Francysk Skaryna

Quotes by Francysk Skaryna

От прирожения звери, ходящие в пустыни, знають ямы своя; птици, летающие по возъдуху, ведають гнезда своя; рибы, плавающие по морю и в реках, чують виры своя; пчелы и тым подобныя боронять ульев своих, — тако ж и люди, игде зародилися и ускормлены суть по бозе, к тому месту великую ласку имають.

“Beasts wandering in the wilderness know their own dens; birds flying through the air know their own nests; fish swimming the seas and rivers sense their own pools; bees and their kind guard their own hives — so too do people cherish greatly the place where they were born and raised.”

People, like all living creatures, feel a deep, natural attachment to their native land — an early expression of Belarusian patriotism.

Francysk Skaryna

Source: Francysk Skaryna, preface to the Book of Judith (Bivlia Ruska), Prague, 9 February 1519