The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy traces its origins to 1615, when the noblewoman Galshka Gulevicheva donated land and money to build the Brotherhood Monastery School in Kiev. When Metropolitan of Kyiv Petro Mohyla (circa 1597–1647) arrived in Kiev and decided to open a school at Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the Brotherhood Monastery School appealed to Mohyla not to open a new school but to use the existing institution as the base for a new academy. Mohyla agreed, and in 1632 the Brotherhood Monastery School became the foundation of the future academy. Under Mohyla’s protection, the monastery and school received additional land and financial support. The aim of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was to master the intellectual skills and learning of contemporary Europe and apply them to education in Ukraine. The Orthodox Church at that time felt threatened by incursions by the Jesuit order, and Mohyla chose to take his most dangerous adversary as his model, adopting the organizational structure, teaching methods, and curriculum of the Jesuit schools. The academy was open to young men from all social strata and attracted students and scholars from Ukraine and other European countries. It flourished at the end of the 17th century and enjoyed its golden age during the reign of Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1687–1709), when enrollment was more than 2,000. The academy's golden age came to an abrupt end with Mazepa's defeat at Poltava in 1709. The ban by Tsar Peter I on Ukrainian publications and religious texts in Ukrainian was a further heavy blow. The school revived for a time after Peter’s death, but suffered again under Catherine the Great, whose abolition of the hetmanate in 1764 and secularization of the monasteries in 1786 deprived the academy of its chief sources of financial support. The school became a ward of the Russian imperial government and its importance declined. In 1817 the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was closed down. In 1991, when Ukraine gained its independence, the academy was revived as National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. This book, published in Kiev in 1856, is a history of the academy. It traces the development of the school and provides much detail on such topics as the daily schedule of the students, codes of behavior for teachers and students, admissions policy, and traditions.