“Not only for doctors and philosophers, but also for every good and common person is it necessary to know wisdom and science.”
— Francysk Skaryna
Skaryna wrote variations of this sentiment in the prefaces to his biblical translations published in Prague between 1517 and 1519. He consistently argued that wisdom and knowledge should be accessible to all people, not reserved for the educated elite. His prefaces are among the earliest examples of Belarusian literary prose and represent a remarkably early call for the democratization of learning.
I printed these books in Prague because nobody at home was printing anything. My people had churches and priests and scribes copying manuscripts by hand, but they had no printed books in a language they could read. Latin was for scholars. Church Slavonic was for liturgy. Nobody was writing for the merchant, the craftsman, the mother teaching her child. I translated the Bible into words people actually used and I published it with my own commentary because I believed that knowledge locked away serves nobody. I was a doctor by training but a printer by calling. The press was the most powerful tool I ever held.