/ world today news/ The first Bulgarian scientist-encyclopedist refused a professorship at the Paris Sorbonne
“When I saw in other countries that children were reading books written in their own language, I realized how bad our teachers are and how much trouble the poor children go through in vain, because, having spent their youth in school with so much fear, they come out and do not even know their own names. to write, nor to think… I was hoping that at least now someone would call, but as far as I know that they are working for national benefits, not a single one can think of the unfortunate children and write a book about them. I undertook this work… I hope that everyone who sees this book will be happy, and most of all the teachers, because they, it seems to me, since when would they abandon the psalters and hours, of which the children understand nothing, if we had a book in our language, printed for them.”
With these words begins his “Fish Primer” our great revivalist, enlightener-encyclopedist of European class Peter Beron / 1799 – 1871/. “The father of Bulgarian education” and also “the first Bulgarian scientist-encyclopedist”, as we call him today, who traveled around the old continent in the first half of the 19th century, understood an important truth, which he formulated in one short sentence: “Without enlightenment, our freedom is impossible!” And Bulgaria, enslaved by the wild Asian empire, has lost so much in its development, so the appearance of this remarkable man was of utmost importance for its spiritual awakening.
He was born in the turning point of 1799 in the waking Balkan Kotel. He graduated from the prestigious cell school of his time in his hometown, and turned his gaze to the wider world, beyond the lines of the hated Turkish Empire. Still a child, not yet twelve, he went to the capital of the then vassal Principality of Wallachia, Bucharest, to study at the Princely Academy. There he discovered the famous Primer of the time by the Greek pedagogue Darvar, published in 1804, which inspired him to continue learning, to read persistent books from various areas of life and knowledge. Noticed by wealthy and patriotic Bulgarians from Bucharest / then Wallachia and Moldova received hospitably many of our compatriots-emigrants / who decided to help him continue his education in Europe.
At first, the young Beron settled in the big city of Brasov / then within the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire/. There he continued to study and started working as a home teacher in the family of the rich Bulgarian Anton Jovanovich, an immigrant from Sliven. Jovanovitch’s patriotism played a huge role in Beron’s further journey, as it was his encouragement to compile the Fish Primer. The rich Bulgarian emigrant patron became the sponsor for the printing of the primer. He supervised the studies of Peter Beron at the Brasov Male Classical High School. In this city /today within the borders of Romania/, the young Beron studied ancient Greek, Latin, Romanian, French and German – a truly solid education for its time.
In 1825, Beron was already a student in Germany at Heidelberg University. He enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy and studied there for a year. Then he decided that it would be better to get a doctor’s degree and transferred to the Faculty of Medicine, where he also studied for a year. Dissatisfied with his studies there, he moved to another German city – Munich, where he graduated with full honors.
In fact, Peter Beron studied besides medicine and philosophy, also history, geography, physics, chemistry… He is truly our first scholar-encyclopedist. As a young man, driven by his insatiable thirst for knowledge, he visited a number of European cities, in addition to Bucharest and Athens, Prague, Vienna, Berlin, Rome, London, staying the longest in Paris, where he studied at the Sorbonne. There, in the French capital, he wrote a large part of his contributing scientific works. He was noticed by his French colleagues. They offer him to stay in Paris and live and teach there, even accept French citizenship, become Dr. Pierre Beron and even receive a noble title. But his answer to this alluring offer is short and eloquent: ” Dear Sirs, I am Bulgarian and will remain so! Thank you for the honor!”
In 1831, he returned to the city of Craiova, Wallachia, where he was appointed as a district doctor. His work is responsible, stressful, but full of energy and strength, he also successfully manages the trading company, finds time to help many young Bulgarians who have arrived there to get a higher education. During these years, he continuously allocated large sums of money for teaching aids and books for girls’ schools, as well as providing them with valuable methodical assistance in the organization and structuring of the educational process.
In 1842, Dr. Petar Beron left the post of district doctor in Craiova, continuing his commercial activity. For him, it is not at all a means of personal enrichment and a luxurious life / he always lived modestly, and as a student even poor / but the only possible way to continue his two noble missions – his scientific activity and the support of Bulgarian education. Therefore, he bought lands and began to live as a merchant and rentier. This made him free, and from then until the end of his days he was exclusively engaged in scientific work and educational work.
Peter Beron is the author of a total of 24 scientific works, published in 32 volumes. But in this era, the most significant and famous for Bulgarian education was his “Fish Primer”, published in Brasov in 1824. The first Bulgarian encyclopedia! A unique edition for its time.
Peter Beron is fortunate to be a contemporary of the thirst for knowledge of the Bulgarian Renaissance. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Bulgarians’ interest in the so-called “secular” education is growing and the revivalists are looking for any way to bring knowledge into the life and nascent structures of an isolated from the world, enslaved Bulgaria. But the ideas of the Enlightenment, although late, managed to touch the native land as well. A common practice during this historical period was the collective effort of the community sending awake children abroad to return and help continue progress.
So, quite logically, the Bulgarian educational renaissance begins precisely with this great Bulgarian.
Having acquired knowledge and skills in the West, he managed to popularize the famous English in our country. Bell-Lancaster, or “Mutual Teaching Methodology”, which allowed teachers to include their best graduates in teaching younger students.
In his little primer, Peter Beron explained this system, and the book itself was the most popular teaching tool of the era. She broadened the narrow horizons of young students and provided information about the vast world of biology, physics, history and geography. All the methods preached by Beron were revolutionary for their time: he was against rough treatment of students and against physical punishments. In addition, Beron showed special concern for the education of women, as early as 1840 he sent money to his brother to find a teacher and open a girls’ school in the Kotel.
It is about this school that a note was placed in the magazine “Luboslovie”, in which it is said that: “However, the most excellent gratitude was shown by that school in which the girls were taught, who were tested on pure reading, pure and good writing and in rules arithmetical.”
In the same note, it is added that this school was supported by “Peter Beron, a native of Kotel, who paid for this school”. In the same magazine, Konstantin Fotinov adds that “the same Beron set up five schools and zealously supported them with his property – one each in Kotel, Elena, Shumen, Sliven and Tarnovo”.
Although he lives far from his homeland, in another note published in the “Tsarigradski Vestnik” from 1861, it is said that: “Dr. P. Beron, known to you, from June 1859, determined 200 zlotys each year for girls’ schools in various villages in the Shumen kaaza.” The first 200 gold coins were distributed to schools in Kotel, Shumen and ten villages.
His “Fish Primer” was received with great interest by the Bulgarian society, but despite this primitive religious education took root in the Bulgarian way of life. Among the reasons why Beron’s plan for reforming education was not implemented are the economic backwardness of the country and the weakness of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie – part of it is convulsing! and, to her shame, supports the still existing fascination with the Greek Enlightenment.
At the end of his life, Beron left as a testament both his beliefs about education, among which to find “Russian or Slavic, German, Greek or Italian women who will teach the children two or three languages”, as well as his means, determining from the income of his homestead in Skorilo to build two-story boarding schools in the larger villages close to Ruse, Shumen, Varna and Silistra.
And a little-known historical fact:
Dr. Peter Beron did not die either of disease or of natural causes, but was brutally murdered!
In 1840, the large homestead near Craiova. Right there, he was killed in 1871, when, on one of his frequent returns to Romania, he stayed at his homestead waiting for some case to be heard in connection with his property. It is an assault with the intent of robbery.
His relatives issued the following obituary:
“On the 21st of March of this year (we are talking about 1871) late in the evening, an evil hand dared and reached out to take the life of our honest and excellent uncle Dr. Peter Beron, and that in the ugliest and most painful way – with his strangulation! We are sure that every one’s hair must stand on end when he thinks of the dreadful condition in which the deceased was in the last days of his life, when he was tormented by the inhuman and beast-like creatures, called men, who committed this atrocious atrocity!”
The “beastlike beings” are two mercenary Romanian bandits hired by the Greek Teohar Papazoglu, who was authorized to run his estate. And the murderers are sentenced to life imprisonment.
Dr. Beron left a will, revised by him several times during his lifetime, in which he appointed a committee headed by the merchant and patron Evlogi Georgiev as trustees. After his death, the trustees won the case for the property and executed his will. The homestead was sold and a part of the proceeds – not very large – was given to the Kotel municipality (Beron is from Kotel), and the main part of the funds went to the construction of the “Bulgarian Men’s Pedagogical High School” in Edirne, named after him – “Dr. Peter Beron”. From the academic year 1897-98 she began to support herself from the fund established by the trustees of Dr. Beron’s will.
His covenant remains to this day:
“We must endeavor to print as many books as possible in our language for the learning of our people, for it is enough that they have been in darkness without science for so long. May God grant that the zeal and zeal of all our fellow tribesmen may spread, and that science may multiply in our dear Fatherland!”
#Lets #remember #Peter #Beron
