Authors

Aliaksandr Susha¹;  ¹ International Association for Belarusian Studies, Belarus

Discussion

Francysk Skaryna was an outstanding figure of Belarusian culture in the Renaissance Epoch. He was the first who managed to release a printed book in 1517. Thus, he was the first who made the book word and along with it all knowledge of the mankind available for general public. Francysk Skaryna was a pioneer of Belarusian science, who reached the highest scientific assessments – doctor of medicine and doctor of liberal sciences (philosophy). He was one of the first among his compatriots who brought his activity to the international stage, continuing to be a patriot and directing his intentions to the enlightenment of his people. In addition, Francysk Skaryna is known as a philosopher, theologian, translator, teacher, doctor, diplomat, secretary, entrepreneur and a founder of one of the first botanical gardens in Europe. He made an invaluable contribution to many spheres of work, starting with transformation of linguistic and literary tradition of book writing and typographic art to the perfection of national philosophical, theological, aesthetic and legal thoughts. But his books remained the major heritage he left. 

In this case, it’s necessary to work on identification and description of all known copies of publications. In the course of the 20th century many attempts were made to calculate all extant copies of Skaryna editions. Many bibliographers, especially Evgeny Nemirovsky and Hieorhij Halienčanka, did a great job on describing all Skaryna’s extant editions copy-by-copy. However, the recent emergence of the new copies that were unknown earlier, as well as specification of accounting methodology, makes us return to this issue.

In accordance with the methodology chosen for the day we identified 520 printed copies and 45 handwritten texts of the Skaryna books that are stored in public and private collections in Belarus, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, the USA, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. 

The first books published due to the work of Francysk Skaryna, are a national treasure, and the first printer himself became one of the symbols of Belarus. Today he is seen as the most famous national enlightener and cultural figure. International recognition of the 500th anniversary of Belarusian and East Slavic book-printing was acknowledged by the decision of UNESCO to include the jubilee of Belarusian book-printing into the Memorable Dates Calendar of this international organization.