Drohobych, Yurii

Drohobych, Yurii (Drohobytsky) [Дрогобич (Дрогобицький) Юрій; Drohobyč (Drohobyc’kyj), Jurij] (pen name of Yurii Kotermak), b ca 1450 in Drohobych, d 4 February 1494 in Cracow. The first doctor of medicine in Ukraine. He was brought up in Drohobych and received a master's degree from Cracow University (1473) and a doctoral degree and medical degree from Bologna University (1476, 1482). In 1481–2 he was rector of Bologna University, where he taught astronomy and medicine, and in 1487 he became a professor of medicine at Cracow University. His book Judicium prenosticon Magistri Georgii Drogobicz de Russia was published in Rome in 1483, but only two copies of it are known to exist. This was the first book published abroad by a Ukrainian. His biography by Yaroslav Isaievych was published in Kyiv in 1972.

  [This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]