Petar Beron

Dr. Petar Beron (Bulgarian: Петър Берон) (c. 1799, Kotel – 21 March 1871) was a Bulgarian educator.

He created the first modern Bulgarian primer, erroneously called the Fish Primer (Рибен буквар, Riben bukvar) because of the dolphin drawn in the end of the book (dolphins are mammals, unlike fish). Beron has been called "the father of modern Bulgaria."

Petar Beron was born around 1800, probably in 1799, 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.

He 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 (written in Latin), and the Fish Primer.

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