Vasil Grigorovich-Barsky

Vasil Grigorovich Barsky (Ukrainian: Василь Григорович Григорович-Барський; Russian: Василий Григорьевич Григорович-Барский; born 1 (N.S.

However, in 1723 he had to leave the studies due to ill health and traveled to Lviv (then part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) to seek medical advice.

In 1724, after a conflict at the academy, Grigorovich-Barsky left Lviv and started his journey, during which he visited Pest, Vienna, Bari, Rome, Venice, Corfu, Mount Athos, Palestine, Egypt and Cyprus.

From 1736 to 1743 he lived on the island of Patmos, where he continued to study language, logic and metaphysics and at the same time taught Latin at a local school.

In 1743 he was appointed a priest at the Russian embassy in Constantinople by empress Yelizaveta Petrovna, and for the next two years studied documents in the libraries of Mount Athos.

He returned to Constantinople in 1746, where he had a conflict with the new Russian diplomat, Adrian Ivanovich Neplyuev, who accused him for Philhellenism and betrayal of national interests.

His image is described by his brother and placed in the preface to the first edition of his notes: “There is no portrait of this father Vasily, but he was of the following signs: he is tall, the hair on his head and beard is black without any gray hair, his face is dark, his body is portly, his eyebrows are black, high, large and almost together converged, eyes are sharp, brown, nose is short; both in dress, and in the pronunciation of speeches and posture, he looked like a Greek; why his own mother, upon his return to the house after 24 years of travel, could not find out even after an hour in conversations; in other things, he had a cheerful and playful disposition, was curious about all kinds of sciences and arts, and especially to drawing, and from childhood he had a desire to see foreign countries, and he did it by the very deed".