Francysk Skaryna

Printer
Francysk Skaryna was a Belarusian humanist, physician, translator and one of the first book printers in Eastern Europe. He was born in Polotsk approximately in 1490 and was educated at the University of Krakow where he got his bachelor’s degree in philosophy. At the University of Padua, he obtained a Doctorate of Medicine degree. After his studies he moved to Prague and opened a printing-house in 1517. His first publication was Psalter which was followed by 22 books of the Old Testament in the Old Belarusian language. In the forewords he emphasizes that the purpose of his publishing is to help common people to “become acquainted with wisdom and science” so that they “schooled in wisdom, live kindly on the Earth”. In the early 1520s Skaryna moved to Vilnius and continued to work as a printer. His works are marked by very high print quality, beautiful engravings, distinctive fonts and striking illustrations. He used the Cyrilic script.