Bulgaria - Dr. Petar Beron
Bulgaria - 10,000 lev - 1997 - P112
Dr. Petar Beron (c. 1795, Kotel-March 21, 1871) was a famous Bulgarian educator. He created the first modern Bulgarian primer, called the Fish Primer because of the dolphin drawn on its front cover. Petar Beron was born around 1800, probably in 1795, in the town of Kotel in a rich family of handcraftsmen and merchants. In Kotel he received his primary education at the church school of Stoyko Vladislavov and Rayno Popovich. He furthered his education in Bucharest, where he entered the school of Greek educator Konstantin Vardalach. The latter, famous pedagogist and encyclopaedist at the time, has significantly influenced Beron's development as a scientist and philosopher.
In 1824 he was forced to leave Bucharest, because he participated in a "Greek plot", and went to Bra?ov, another Romanian town, where he compiled the Fish Primer. This book is fundamental for the Bulgarian Renaissance and an achievement for the young scholar. In 1825 Beron enrolled as a student at Heidelberg University where he studied philosophy for two years before he transferred to Munich to study medicine. On July 9, 1831, after successfully defending a doctoral dissertation, Beron earned the Doctor of Medicine title. The dissertation was in Latin and concerned a methodology of obstetrics and gynecology.
The young physician worked in Bucharest and Craiova, but after several years of general practice quit his job and started a business in merchandise. Fifteen years later, having made a fortune, he went to Paris where he rented an apartment, where he started his real scientific career. His ambition was to study all the human knowledge by that time and to make a nature-philosophical evaluation by creating a new Panepisteme. His encyclopaedism was remarkable. Dr. Beron spoke nine languages and wrote about 30 volumes, not counting two dictionaries, an atlas, his doctoral dissertation and the Fish Primer.
There are certain facts, which come to show Dr. Beron's standing among scientists of the time. On the session of the Royal Academy of Science in London, held on June 20, 1850, Sir John Lee presented his work On the System of Atmospherology and acknowledged Beron's activity. In 1853 Dr. Beron was invited by the Association of Natural Sciences in Athens where he read an article titled Earth before the Deluge. In 1855 he published his Slavic Philosophy in the German language, where an outline of his Panepisteme is featured. In 1858 Origins of Physical and Natural Sciences and of Metaphysical and Moral Sciences was printed in the French language.
The next two years were devoted to a huge cosmographical atlas with descriptions. The maps in the atlas were designed by the famous Bulgarian painter Nicolaus Pavlovich. But the height of his scientific endeavours was the Panepisteme, in seven volumes, which was published in French in the beginning of 1861. Until the end of his life on March 21, 1871 he was devoted to this interesting and creative task.
Almost the same images appear on the 10 lev note from 1997 and 2008 (P117a/b):
Bulgaria - 10 lev - 1997/2008 - P117a/b
No comments