Памво Беринда

Activity: Printing, Culture
Date of birth: circa 1555
Date of death: 1632
Navigator: Late Middle Ages. Rus’ after Rus’

Little reliable information about Pamva Berynda has survived, although he accomplished a great deal. His main work is the Lexicon of the Slavonic-Ruthenian Language (1627), the most outstanding achievement of early Ukrainian lexicography. In addition, he worked in several Ukrainian printing houses, and at the Kyiv Lavra printing house he became the chief printer as well as an editor and translator (he knew about twelve languages).
Berynda left no information about his personal life in the prefaces to his editions (although this was customary), and only a few official documents about him have survived. What we do know about his biography illustrates how scholarly hypotheses are formed. For example, the assumption that Berynda came from the Sambir region is based on the presence of a significant number of Boyko dialect elements in his Lexicon. At that time, the Sambir region belonged to the cultural sphere of the ancient and influential city of Peremyshl. It was also the homeland of Cossack hetmans such as Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny and Marko Zhmailo.
Berynda likely received his education at the Lviv Brotherhood School, where he joined the Orthodox cultural movement. He became part of a circle of scholars organized by the Balaban brothers in Striatyn and Klyros. There he proved himself as an editor, engraver, and publisher. Later, Berynda lived with the Bishop of Peremyshl, Mykhailo Kopystensky, for whom he compiled a genealogy of the family. After the death of his patrons, he returned to Lviv and took monastic vows. Between 1613 and 1619, he taught at the Lviv Brotherhood School and created a collection of poems, On the Nativity of Our Lord God…, which included elements of the vernacular language.
By that time, Berynda had earned a reputation as an experienced printer, scholar, and teacher, so the archimandrite of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, Yelysei Pletenetsky, himself a native of Galicia, invited him to Kyiv. Mykhailo Hrushevsky described the early seventeenth century as the “first influx” of Galicians into Kyiv, which contributed to the spiritual and national unity of Ukrainian lands.
In Kyiv, Pamva Berynda published three important works: Anthologion (1619), Nomocanon (1620), and Triodion (1627). He gained recognition as a translator and as a teacher at the Kyiv Brotherhood School. In 1620, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Theophanes III of Constantinople, granted him the title of protosyncellus (an assistant in strategic matters), which testifies to his significant role among Kyiv’s Orthodox intellectuals.
Pamva Berynda worked on his dictionary for thirty years: he began it within the Balaban circle, continued at the Lviv Brotherhood School, and completed this monumental work in Kyiv. It was the first systematic printed dictionary in Ukrainian lexicography. It was preceded by the smaller Lexis by Lavrentii Zyzanii—a glossary attached to his grammar.
Berynda’s dictionary embodies the Baroque worldview, with its perception of the world as a book. It includes several authorial illustrations, and some entries resemble poetry. In total, the dictionary contains about 7,000 entries. Berynda not only explained meanings but also traced the origins of words, indicated grammatical categories such as number, tense, and mood, and noted possible figurative meanings.
The dictionary is divided into two parts: the first is a translation from Church Slavonic into the contemporary spoken Ruthenian (Ukrainian) language; the second is a dictionary of foreign words, as well as common and proper names found in literature. The translation section contains almost encyclopedic commentary—reflecting the Baroque aesthetic, Berynda sought to reveal the deeper essence of each word. According to the worldview of the time, understanding a word led to understanding God; thus, lexicology originated within philosophy and theology.
In the preface, it is stated that the dictionary had an educational purpose: Berynda compiled it “for the benefit of students.” Moreover, this work contributed to the formation of Ruthenian identity, which intensified in the early seventeenth century in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth amid the activity of the brotherhood movement, interconfessional polemics, the restoration of the Orthodox church hierarchy, and the emergence of the Cossacks.
Pamva Berynda and his circle (including Stefan Zyzanii, Lavrentii Zyzanii, Herasym Smotrytsky, Meletius Smotrytsky, Demian Nalyvaiko, Zakhariia Kopystensky, Yov Boretsky, Kasian Sakovych, and others) stood at the center of ideological, religious, and cultural-aesthetic renewal. These changes were part of broader civilizational movements that influenced all of Central and Eastern Europe. The spread of Renaissance and humanist ideas stimulated processes of personal and social self-awareness, reforms in the religious sphere, and the strengthening of national identity.
Author: Olha Petrenko-Tseunova

Brief conclusions

Statesman and reformer — known as the author of the first printed Ukrainian dictionary, which became an important milestone in the development of the Ukrainian language, as well as a religious and cultural figure.
Legislator — not a legislator, but made a significant contribution to literary and artistic activity.
Builder and patron — not directly a patron or builder, yet his work was aimed at the development of Ukrainian culture and education.
Church policy — advocated for the preservation and development of the Orthodox faith, language, and identity. As head of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra printing house, he was the chief printer of the Orthodox Church and played a key role in publishing liturgical and polemical works.
Legacy — through his most important work, the first printed dictionary of the Ukrainian language, Lexicon of the Slavonic-Ruthenian Language and Interpretation of Names, he created a bridge between Church Slavonic and the living Ukrainian language.

Editorial Board of the “Portal”