8. Read the text and get ready to speak about Francisk iryna:

WHAT WAS DR. SKARYNA?

In 1990 Belarusians celebrated the 500th anniversary of the birth of Doctor Francisk Skaryna, the first translator and publisher of the Bible (1517-1519) in the Belarusian language. Skaryna's work had a profound influence both on the cultural development of Belarus and on the Belarusian patriotic movement. Belarusian printing owes its beginnings to Dr. Francisk Skaryna, a prominent scholar and humanist.

Dr. Skaryna was born into a family of a wealthy merchant in the old Belarusian city of Polotsk in 1490. He received elementary education in his native town. From 1504 till 1506 he studied at Krakow University. He graduated from the university with the Bachelor's degree in philosophy and later, in 1512, he successfully passed his examinations at the university of Padua and got his Doctor's degree in medicine. He was a true Renaissance man - his intellectual interests embraced theology, literature, linguistics, poetry, art, law, medicine, botany and printing. It should be mentioned that he was a very educated man. He knew the Polish, old Jewish, Greek and Latin languages. He was the author of a number of admirable Byzantine-rite hymns and prayers, as well as of the first known examples of Belarusian verse.

Scaryna began his publishing activity in Prague in 1517. From 1517 till 1519 he published 19 books under the common title «The Russian Bible?». The most important of his achievements was the translation of the Bible into the Belarusian language and printing it, first in Prague, and then in Vilno. Skaryna's Belarusian Bible was the second work printed in his native Slavonic language. He wrote little whilst translating the Bible, but in the fashion of the day he hinted much, Particularly in his superb engravings. Scaryna was also skilled in the art of heraldy. Like other translators at that time, he wanted «to make knowledge available to people in their own language". He said, «I vow the Belarusian language will become a language of books, and not only of speech».

At the beginning of 1520 Scaryna went to Vilno where he founded the first printing-house. In 1522 he published «The Small Travelling Book» («Малая падарожная книжыца») and in 1525 - «The Apostole».

Unfortunately, we know very little about the last years of Scaryna's life. It is only known that in 1530 Scaryna was a private secretary and a family doctor of the bishop of Vilno. In 1535 Scaryna again went to Prague where he worked as a

Gardener Royal to Ferdinand I Hapsburg, King of Bohemia and later Holy Roman Emperor. It is supposed that Scaryna died in 1541.

In the centre of Polotsk you can see a monument to Francisk Scaryna. There is Scaryna's square in Minsk and the main street of the city is named after him. Minsk is the seat of the international Francisk Scaryna Belarusian Language Society, and the libraries of the city hold a number of rare volumes of his printed works.

«Scaryna is without doubt the most outstanding figure in the entire panoply of Belarusian culture» wrote Prof. A.B.McMillan.