29 Facts About Francysk Skaryna

Francysk Skaryna was a Belarusian humanist, physician, and translator.

Francysk Skaryna is known to be one of the first book printers in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in all of Eastern Europe, laying the groundwork for the development of the Belarusian izvod of the Church Slavonic language.

Francysk Skaryna's father, Luka Skaryna, was a merchant, who dealt with someone known as Doronya Ivanov, from Velikiye Luki.

The date is an upper boundary; while new students younger than 14 were rare, older ones were not unusual, and Francysk Skaryna could have started his studies at the age of 18 or even older.

Mikalai Shchakatsikhin suggested that the overlapping sun and moon on Francysk Skaryna's personal emblem indicates that he was born around the time of the 1486 solar eclipse, which was observed in Polotsk.

In 1504, Francysk Skaryna is recorded as a student at Jagiellonian University.

Francysk Skaryna released new books periodically over the next few months.

In 1522, Francysk Skaryna opened the first printing house in Vilnius.

Francysk Skaryna published "The Little Travel Book", followed by "Apostol" in 1525.

Francysk Skaryna wished to distribute his books in Moscow but was unsuccessful.

Francysk Skaryna married Margarita, the widow of a Vilnius city councilor.

Roman Skaryna, Ivan's son and Francysk's nephew, actively helped his uncle, meeting with King Sigismund I When Skaryna was released, he sent a complaint letter with a counterclaim against the creditors to the King.

The last information about Francysk Skaryna is mentioned in the archives of 1534.

Francysk Skaryna probably served in the royal garden in Prague until his death.

In 1552, his son Simeon Rus Francysk Skaryna received a royal certificate, according to which he, as the sole heir, was given all of the property of his father.

Francysk Skaryna's name is Catholic, but it is often suggested that he changed it before entering the university.

Francysk Skaryna devoted his life to the publication of the biblical texts.

Francysk Skaryna sought to make the Bible more available to the common people and write it in an accessible language.

Francysk Skaryna composed prefaces to his editions, in which he emphasized that the purpose of his publishing activities was to help ordinary people "become acquainted with wisdom and science".

Francysk Skaryna contributed to the development of the Belarusian literary language.

Francysk Skaryna printed his Psalter, and then twenty-two books of the Old Testament under the shared name Biblia Ruska.

Francysk Skaryna's books were different from the Western European printed Bibles of that time, in that they were all published in the quarto format.

Francysk Skaryna's books contributed to the development of the Belarusian izvod of the Church Slavonic language.

All of Francysk Skaryna's editions are very rare today, especially those published in Vilnius.

The language in which Francysk Skaryna printed his books was based on Church Slavonic, but with a large number of Belarusian words, and therefore was most understandable to the inhabitants of the Ruthenian lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Francysk Skaryna was one of the pioneers of publishing in Cyrillic script, but not the first: the Oktoikh was published by Schweipolt Fiol in 1491.

Some researchers maintain that Francysk Skaryna's books were in Church Slavonic heavily saturated with Ruthenian.

Some Belarusian scholars see Francysk Skaryna as a Renaissance man, on par with Copernicus and Erasmus, whose work in the Slavic lands was a part of the European Reformation.

In 1991, Francysk Skaryna was depicted on the Soviet Union one-ruble coin.