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Georgian Literature in European Scholarship
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European interest in Georgian literature stemmed from various causes at different periods. In 17th-century Rome the desire to study the Georgian world found expression in the missionary aims of the Propaganda Fide society for spreading the Catholic faith. In the first half of the 19th century the Societé Asiatique in Paris was interested in Georgia as a little-known country of the East. These first steps resulted in a closer acquaintance of the Georgians and Georgian literature by Europeans, this generating direct interest in the Georgian world proper, based on sympathy to and affection for this people viewed as exotic. In the 19th century many European scholars evinced a clear desire to study the uniqueness of the Georgian phenomenon. 20th-century European scholarship studies Georgian literature not only for its sake, i.e. not only to study a rich and interesting national literature, but also as a fact of universal interest, for Georgian literature came to be aknowledged as an inseparable constituent and important part of European civilization. That is why research into the Georgian translation of the Bible was carried on with general bibliological interests in mind: Georgian biblical texts allow to draw important conclusions on the formation and spread of Eastern versions of the Bible. The study of Georgian hagiography permits to fill a major gap in the history of Byzantine hagiography. Georgian literature has preserved the lives and martyrdoms of saints considered lost in Byzantine literature. Georgian secular literature of the 12th-13th centuries manifests early impulses of Renaissance thinking, providing important material for the study of the geographical and chronological boundaries of the inception of Renaissance culture. The processes that form a pecular trend in the same-period literature of Eastern Europe and Russia are perceivable in 20th century Georgian literature.
The researches of Western scholars in Georgian literature are of major significance for Kartvelology proper, for problems of Kartvelology enter the world arena. At the same time Western research makes its contribution to the writing of a scholarly course of the history of Georgian literature, as Western researchers bring European methodology and different criteria into the study of the history of Georgian literature. They often view Georgian literary processes from the angle of general literary criticism, which is indispensable at the present stage of development of Kartvelian Studies. Georgian scholars follow with great interest the activities of their European counterparts in the sphere of Kartvelology. Nevertheless, the studies of foreign scholars on questions of Georgian literature are not always properly reflected in Georgian scholarship. This is due to various reasons: language barrier, inaccessibility of the specialist literature, etc. However, the main reason is that the works of foreign researchers on Georgian literature have not been systematized and processed bibliographically. The aim of the present work is to fill this gap. Surely enough, the ground for such research in Georgian scholarship had been gradually laid. Noteworthy in this connection is the special research on the studies of foreign Rustaveli students, done at the Rustaveli Seminar, Tbilisi State University ("Rustaveli in World Literature", ed. by L. Menabde, Tb., v. I, 1976; v. II, 1978; v. III, 1988; v. IV, 1985). Rustvelology is the only branch of Georgian literary criticism in which more or less comprehensive bibliographies have been compiled and published, comprising scholarly works (G. Imedashvili, "The Rustvelological Literature", Tbilisi, 1957) and editions of the translations of Rustaveli's poem into foreign languages (V. Chachanidze. The Man in the Panther's Skin in the Languages of the Peoples of the World, Tbilisi, 1980). Georgian researchers of West-European literature pay attention to the study of questions of Georgian themes in European literature, particularly, to the study of questions of Georgian literature by European scholars. In this respect, individual monographs on European Kartvelologists or European translators of Georgian literary works (Al. Baramidze, Marie Brosset; a Researcher of Georgian Literature. - Essays on the History of Georgian Literature, VIII, Tb., 1985, pp. 228-239; Rusudan Dodashvili, Marie Brosset: a Researcher of Georgian Literature, Tb., 1962; Leila Taktakishvili-Urushadze, Marjory Wardrop, Tb., 1965), as well as a cycle of essays on Georgian-foreign literary contacts are noteworthy (M. Tamarashvili, The History of Catholicism among the Georgians, Tiflis, 1902; D. Lang, Georgian Studies in Oxford. - Oxford Slavonic Papers. vol. VI, 1955; Sh. Revishvili, German-Georgian Studies, Tb., 1957; D. Panchulidze, Towards the History of Georgian-French Literary Contacts, Tb., 1969; N. Orlovskaya, Georgia in the Literatures of Western Europe in the 17th-18th Centuries, Tb., 1986; G. Sharadze, The Roots of British-Georgian Historical Contacts and The Emergence of Kartvelology in Britain. - Bednierebisa da satnoebis saunje, Tb., 1984, pp.3-34, S. Turnava, Bedi Kartlisa, Tb., 1991, etc., Rohrbacher's Materialen zur georgischen Bibliographie (Bonn, 1981) has proved an important manual for compiling a bibliography of German-language specialist literature on Georgian literature. But the cited material as well as other similar publications serve only as pointers to the vast and labour-consuming work to be done in order to fulfil the task in hand: In the first place bibliographies of the main works published by European researchers on Georgian literature and of the translations of specimens of Georgian literature into Western languages had to be compiled. The present monograph has been written on the basis of their furthur study and generalization. The present task of studying the status of research on the investigation of Georgian literature in Europe primarily implies the study of problems of Georgian literature by European researchers in the main Western languages - English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. As attention in the monograph is focused on the works of European researchers, works on Georgian literary problems published by Kartvelologists from Georgia in Western languages will not be highlighted.(1) However, in researching the process of Kartvelian Studies in Europe, account will be taken of the influence of Georgian literary criticism upon the work of European scholars, as brought to light by the studies and separate articles published in Europe by Georgian scholars. |
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Preliminary analysis of the problem under study has shown that in Europe research on Georgian literature assumed a comprehensive and original form in the scholarly literature written in Western languages. Of course, works on Georgian literature are written in East-European languages as well - in Czech, Slovac, Polish, Bulgarian, etc. Especially after World War Two when Europe was redivided into two political camps, and Eastern Europe, together with the former USSR, set up a close economic, political and cultural bloc, Russian-language materials on Georgian literature set the tone of the study of Georgian literature in this region of Eastern Europe. Translations of Georgian literary works into East-European languages are chiefly made from the Russian: scholarly studies on Georgian literature are also translated largely from the Russian or written on the basis of Russian-language studies: in encyclopedias the studies on Georgian literature are translated in the main from the Russian. Therefore, I believe that the study of problems of Kartvelology in East-European languages must be related to the study of Russian-language Kartvelological literature, and so it cannot be the subject of special discussion in the present monograph.
In the present monograph the problem in hand - Georgian literature in European scholarship - is studied along three lines: 1.Compilation of bibliographies. As noted above, the monograph is supplemented with two types of bibliographies. Such bibliographies have not been compiled up to the present time. I am convinced that, despite the flaws this first attempt may possibly have (omitted bibliographical units, mistakes in the recording of individual facts), they will be of great help to both European and Georgian researchers of Georgian literature. 2. A short history of the research on Georgian literature in Western Europe. On the basis of the bibliographies just cited, as well as with account of Georgian literature, brought to light by me in other European countries (Spain, Finland, Norway, etc.), and an analysis of the essays published to date on this problem, I have compiled for the first time a short history of the study of Georgian literature in Western Europe. The facts are arranged according to the chronological principle. The main centres where such work was carried on and the journals in which materials on Georgian literature where published have been identified. The activity of major European Kartvelologists who have studied Georgian literature is analysed. 3. Scholarly analysis of the study of Georgian literature in Europe. The novelties introduced into the study of Georgian literature by European scholars are discussed: correct solution and grounding of controversial problems, and expansion of the sphere of research. At the same time, the shortcomings and inaccuracies characteristic of European Kartvelology in researching Georgian literary problems are pointed out. Some typical errors current in European scholarship regarding problems of Georgian literature are discussed critically. Part One of the monograph is an attempt at writing a history of the research into Georgian literature in Europe. Georgian literature is one of the oldest and richest among the Christian world's literatures. Beginning with the 5th century to the present-day, thousands of original literary works have been written in the Georgian national alphabet and preserved. Thousands of literary works translated into Georgian are also extant, beginning with the Bible, whose existence in Georgian is attested from the first half of the 5th century surviving to the present day in six redactions. The oldest literary works extant in Georgian were translated from Greek, Armenian, Arabic, Persian, Russian. Some originals of these translations are unknown to scholarship and considered lost. Beginning with the 19th century, literary works have been translated into Georgian from almost all major European or Asian languages. This rich literature has come down to as not only in printed form but in manuscripts as well, their oldest fragments dating from the 6th century. Today Georgian books and oldest manuscripts are preserved not only in Georgia but also at large libraries of Europe and America, and at medieval Church libraries as well. A most significant poem has been created in the Georgian language: Vepkhistqaosani (The Man in the Panther's Skin) - one of the masterpieces of the poetry of modern civilization. The first attempts at a scholarly study of this literature are traceable to the early Middle Ages. The study assumed diverse forms: bibliographical (10th-century catalogue of the library of the Georgian monastery on Mount Sinai), a list of an author's literary works (a catalogue of the works translated by Euthymius the Athonite, dated 1002), a view on the relation of the oldest Georgian redactions of the Bible to the original (Giorgi the Athonite, mid-11th century), analysis of the old-Georgian method of translation (Eprem Mtsire, second half of the 11th century), etc. Such scholarly interpretation of Georgian literature by Georgian scholars took part largely beyond the borders of Georgia (Mount Sinai - Arabian peninsula, Black Mountain - near Antioch, Mount Athos - Greece). This points to the fact that the activity of the Georgian men of letters was from the beginning linked with the medieval cultural centres of the Christian world. Europeans must have acquainted themselves with some Georgian men of letters or separate works in the Middle Ages. In any case, the Greek monastic corporation on Mount Athos was well-acquainted with the outstanding Georgian translators Euthymius the Athonite and Giorgi the Athonite, appreciating their personalities and literary activity. |
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According to the extant Greek and Latin manuscripts translation of literary works from Georgian into Greek must have commenced in the Middle Ages.In 1048, in Constantinople an anonymous Latin translator translated the well-known medieval literary work "Barlaam and Ioasaph" from Greek into Latin. In the introduction, describing his activity, the Latin translator notes that this story had been rendered into Greek from the Georgian by the Georgian monk Euthymius the Athonite (14th-century MS-VIII, B10 of the Neapolitan National Library). This view has been shared and upheld not only by Georgian but largely by European scholars.(2)
According to Georgian sources, there are other indications on the translation of Georgian literary works into Greek. But owing to the non-survival in Greek of the works alluded to, the interpretation of these reports calls for further research. In the 12th-13th centuries secular literature emerged in the Georgian language which, in its character (court poetry, chivalrous and romantic epics), evinces typological similarity with Eastern (Persian-Arabic) and Western (Byzantine and French) literatures of the same period. Thus, Georgian secular literature corresponded to the world literary style and taste of the same period. Bearing in mind that in the 12th century Georgia was one of the powerful states of the East and fairly popular in the Christian world, it may be assumed that works of Georgian literature were translated or found their way in some other form into other languages. In the 1220s Georgia suffered political collapse. The conquest of Georgia by the Mongols was gradually followed by a decline of her economy and culture, the country leaving the main line of development of European civilization. Georgian literature and in general, thought, turned into a closed system. Cultural contacts with neighbouring countries, particularly with Western Europe, ceased. Hence, in European sources of the 14th-15th centuries information about Georgian literature is scanty. However, the existence in this period of individual facts of Georgian-European literary contacts cannot be excluded, e.g. on Mount Athos, where rich traditions of Georgian ecclesiastical literature, based on the Iviron monastery, were alive for a long time. The Georgian world was rediscovered by Europeans in the 16th century. This was facilitated by the activity of the Georgians to establish political contacts with Western countries. With the ultimate fall of the Byzantine empire (in 1453) Georgia lost her only political ally in the East and, encircled by aggressive Islamic counrties, faced the threat of physical destruction. This prompted the Georgian royal court and Church to seek real friendly alliance with Western and Eastern Christian countries. On the one hand, Georgian political orientation strove towards Russia, and on the other, towards Christian Europe. According to the extant evidence, the Georgian kings: Konstantine II (end of the 15th cent.), Simon I (second half of the 16th cent.) and Teimuraz I (first half of the 18th cent.) sent their ambassadors to various countries of Europe, especially to the Pope and the Spanish royal court with letters asking for help. The Georgian initiative was not followed by any political assistance, but Europe became interested in Georgia, her Church, and culture, and major missionary work started in Georgia on the initiative of the Popes. Its aim was the propaganda of Catholicism and rendering humanitarian and cultural aid to the country. This was naturally followed by the Italians getting interested in Georgian culture and literature and by the first steps towards studying the Georgian language and literature. At the beginning, interest in Georgia - viewed as an Eastern exotic country - crystallized in the works of European travellers. The first significant steps in this direction were made by Italian missionaries. Note should primarily be taken of records on Georgia, done with great care and precision by the well-known Italian traveller Pietro della Valle(3)who for a whole century filled Europeans interested in the East with sympathy and love for Georgia. In the last quarter of the 17th century Voyages du Chevalier Chardin en Perse et Autres Lieux de L'Orient was written by the French traveller Jean Chardin. A fairly large part of the book tells about Chardin's impressions of his journey through Georgia in 1672-73, supplemented with evidence on Georgia by earlier authors. The 1620s proved particularly significant for the history of Georgian culture. At this period the Sacrae Congregationis de propaganda fide in Rome began to train monks going to Georgia for missionary work. They were taught Georgian by Nicephorus Irbach, ambassador of the Georgian King Teimuraz I in Rome. On the initiative of the Congregation the Georgian type was cast at the printing-press of the Sacred Congragation, and the first Georgian printed books were issued: 1. "Iberian or Georgian-Alphabet with Prayers", Rome, 1629 (Alphabetum Ibericum, sive georgianum, cum Oratione Dominicali. Romae, Typis Sac. Congr. de Propag. Fide, MDCXXIX). 2. "Georgian and Italian Dictionary", Rome, 1629 (Dittionario Georgiano e Italiano, composto da Stefano Paolini con l'aiuto del M.R.PD. Niceforo Irbachi Georgiano, Monaco di S. Basilio... In Roma, Nella Stampa della Sagra Congr. de Propag. Fide, (I)DCXXIX). 3. "Litaniae Beatae Mariae Virginis Lauretanae (Prayer of Virgin Mary of Laureto, translated from the Latin into Georgian by Nicephorus Irbach). Rome, 1629. |
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Another major cultural result of the activity of Italian missionaries and the Sacred Congregation was the printing of a "Georgian Grammar" by F.M. Maggio at the Sacred Congregation Press in 1643 (Maggio Francisco Maria, Syntagmaton Linguarum orientalium quae in Georgiae regionibus audiuntur..., Romae, M. DC. XLIII). It was the first grammar of the Georgian language.
The first missionaries, sent by the Congregation to Georgia were Theatine monks. Later they were followed by Capuchin missionaries. As a result of their many-years activity in Georgia Europe received much valuable information about Georgian life, history, language and religion. Particularly important in this respect were the activities of Pietro Avitabile, Archangelo Lamberti, Guseppe Judice, Antonio Jardina, Cristoforo de Castelli, Andrea Borromeo and Fra Reginaldo da Lentini. From the 17th century the Georgian theme gradually entered European literature. Classical legend (the story of the Argonauts), historical sources (The Annals by Tacitus), the extant traditions and stories about Georgia, brought by Crusaders or European travellers, gradually became the theme of works of Europrean authors. Ocasionally fabulous themes of oriental origin are mystified and the development of the plot is transferred to Georgia. The interest of 17th-century Europe in the Georgian world was from the start of scholarly character as well. At first this interest was directed at the Georgian language and literature. As indicated above, the Sacred Congregation commenced its activity in relation to the Georgian world with the study of the Georgian language. From the second half of the 17th century Europeans evinced interest in Georgian literary works proper. In this respect the archives of Bernardo Maria Neapolitano is of particular interest. He resided in Georgia for about a decade in the 1670s. At the turn of the present century Georgian scholars discovered a catalogue of old Georgian ecclesiastical and secular writings in his archive in the Capuchin monastery in Torre del Greco. There are also some fragments of works of Georgian secular literature and records of Georgian fairy-tales in the cited archives.(4) Unfortunately, information about Georgia, obtained by Italian missionaries, was not known widely in Europe. Neither the archives of Bernardo Neapolitano claimed the attention of European scholars. The first steps to study Georgian litarature in Europe were largely based upon a) Georgians or consultants with a knowledge of the Georgian language;(5)b) information reaching Europe through the Armenian language; c) in 1709 the Georgian books printed at the first Georgian printing-press in Tbilisi (there are indications that books printed here found their way into Europe in 1714-1715) and d) the Georgian Bible published in Moscow by Vakhtang I's son Bakar. Among European scholars the first work to contain more or less scholarly information about Georgian literature is that of the German scholar G. Adler, Museum cuficum Borgianum Velitris, published in Rome in 1782. Adler discovered 12th-13th century Georgian-Arabic coins in the collection of the museum and he deciphered their Georgian legends with the help of a Georgian consultant. The author of the work supplies general information about Georgia and specifically about the Georgian alphabet and literature. He is familiar with the Georgian Bible, discusses Georgian ecclesiastical literature and has information about Kartlis Tskhovreba ("The Life of Georgia"). Among European scholars F.K. Alter was the author of the first book devoted to Georgian literature proper.(6) Alter was an orientalist, professor of the Greek language, publisher of Classical authors (Homer, Plato, Cicero, Lucretius), and author of many studies of various languages and scripts of Western countries and of diplomacy. Alter mainly juxtaposed the Georgian Bible with the Greek, Armenian and Russian versions. He discussed Kartvelian languages (Mingrelian and Svan) and their relation to Georgian. This attempt of German scholars to study Georgian literature was continued by J.Ch. Adelung. He published Mitridates oder allgemeine Sprachkunde in Berlin in 1806. Georgian materials - basically of linguistic character - entered the first volume of the work. However, the author deals with some Georgian literary facts as well, viz: he speaks about Anton the Catholicos and Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, the printing of Georgian books, and indicates the existence of ecclesiastical and grammatical literature in Georgian. Scholarly study of Georgian literature commenced in Europe in the 1820s. This was basically linked to the scholarly interest in Asia in general, expressed primarily in the foundation of the Societé Asiastique in France in 1822, which issued the monthly Journal Asiatique. The Journal frequently published materials on Georgia. In 1825 M. Brosset (1802-1880) was elected member of this Society. The commencement of scholarly research on Kartvelian Studies in Europe and Russia is linked to his name. The young Brosset got interested in the study of the Georgian language and literature after he had acquainted himself with a critical analysis of a book published in 1802 by the Russian scholar E. Bolkhovitinov in Petersburg. (Èòîèêî èçîáàæíè óçèè â ïîëèòèêîì, öêîâíîì è óáíîì îòîíèè). The critique in question appeared in volume 12 of the "Annals of Travels" issued in 1919 in Europe. By that time Bolkhovitinov's book had been translated into German and published by Fr. Schmidt,(7) owing to which Brosset commenced his major work in Kartvelian Studies by studying the latter book. |
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Brosset began to publish papers about Georgian literature in the Nouv. Journal Asiatique towards the end of the 1820s. His earliest publication in this field was "The Modern State of Georgian Literature" presented by him at the general meeting of the Societé Asiatique.(8) Later, when Brosset moved to St. Petersburg, he published his studies in Georgian literature chiefly in the St. Petersburg Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences and in Paris.
The subject of Brosset's scholarly research was Old Georgian secular literature. In the first place it should be noted that he was the first European reasearcher of Vepkhistqaosani ("The Man in the Panther's Skin"), introducing the plot of Vepkhistqaosani to Europe and appraising Rustaveli's poem as one of the best creations of European literature. He was not only a popularizer of the poem but also the establisher and publisher of its Georgian text (St. Petersburg, edition of 1841). Besides Vepkhistqaosani, Brosset studied other literary works of the Georgian classical period: Abdulmesia, Tamariani, Visramiani and the Amirandarejaniani. He drew a parallel between the chivalry in Amirandarejaniani and the institution of chivalry in the Middle Ages, thereby laying the foundation for this study of Georgian literature in the context of European literature. The activity in Kartvelian Studies, commenced in St. Petersburg under Brosset's direction, gave an impetus to the study of Georgian literature not only in Georgia and Russia, but abroad as well, particularly in Europe. Brosset's coeditor of the second edition of Vepkhistqaosani, David Chubinashvili published a scholarly essay on Vepkhistqaosani in Russia in1842, which was translated into German and published in Berlin in the same year.(9) From that time German scholarship began to take notice of Rustaveli. His name entered the "Histories of World literature" published in Germany and, gradually, in encyclopedias as well. In Britain scholarly interest in Kartvelian Studies developed with the translation of the works of Georgian researchers, and this was linked to S. C. Malan's name. (10)This was preceded by the activity of the Biblical Society, founded in London at the beginning of the 19th century, towards studying Georgian manuscripts. In 1823 the Asiatic Society was founded in London, which, for its part, became interested in Georgian literature. In the 1830s the British Museum obtained the first Georgian MSS. From the 1880s a new stage began in the study of Georgian literature by European scholars. In 1880 the Austrian couple Bertha and Arthur Suttner commenced the translation of Vepkhistqaosani into German. The work of the German scholar Arthur Leist (1852-1927) appeared more successful in aquainting the European reader with Vepkhistqaosani. His German translation of Rustaveli's poem, starting with the Dresden edition of 1889, has been often reprinted in Germany. It was the first full edition of Vepkhistqaosani in Western Europe (this edition was preceded by the translation of Vepkhistqaosani into Polish by Alexander Chodzko, dated 1833, and by Kazimir Lapczkynski in 1863). Besides Leist's numerous studies on Georgian culture,(11) an anthology of Georgian poetry translated, compiled and published by him was of great significance(12) in the popularization of Georgian literature in Europe. The activities of the English brother and sister Oliver and Marjory Wardrop proved of special importance in the study of Georgian literature. John Oliver Wardrop (1864-1948) was diplomat and British envoy in Russia. He became interested in Georgian culture, which proved contaigous for his sister, Marjory Scott Wardrop (1869-1909). The Wardrops studied the Georgian language, travelled in Georgia several times, became closely acquainted with the Georgian people and intelligentsia, and made friends with its best representatives (M.Wardrop's friendship with Ilia Chavchavadze, and their correspondence is one of the best pages in the history of Georgian-English literary contacts). In 1888 O. Wardrop published his book, "The Kingdom of Georgia", in London, which played an important role in the popularization of the Georgian world in Britain. (13)He translated and published several Georgian literary works in London. M. Wardrop followed in her brother's footsteps. Her translation of Vepkhistqaosani, published in 1912 in London with Oliver Wardrop's notes, played an outstanding role in the popularization of Vepkhistqaosani not only in Europe but worldwide as well.(14) At the turn of the present century, work in Kartvelian studies, particularly research on Georgian literature, carried on under the direction of the well-known scholar N. Marr in St. Petersburg, made progress. Many scholarly works on Georgian literary problems, published by him in Russian, and the activity of his pupils, brought a new wave of interest in Georgian literature to Europe. Marr's pupil I. Javakhishvili roused the interest in early Georgian literary monuments of such an eminent researcher of Eastern Christianity as Professor A. Harnack, whose lectures he attended. By their joint work "The Martyrdom of Eustathius of Mtskheta" was published in German in 1901 with a study and notes. (15) At Harnack's suggestion, K. Schulz's German translation "The Martyrdom of Abo of Tiflis", a brilliant Georgian hagiographic work,(16)came out. |
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European bibliologists paid attention to Marr's Russian translation of rare specimens of Byzantine literature preserved in Georgian literature. In this respect Marr's Russian translation of the Commentary on the Song of Songs by Hippolytus of Rome was met with lively response. Parts of the work were translated into German by G.N. Bonwetsch(17)and into French by M. Briere(18). In 1909 N. Marr published a Russian translation of the work of the 7th-century Byzantine writer Antiochus Strategus, "The Capture of Jerusalem" (in Russian, in Teksty i razyskaniya... book IX, St. Petersburg in 1909), translated from the Arabic into Georgian in the 10th century and preserved in Georgian MSS. In 1910 an English translation of the same work was published in London by F. Conybeare.
An attempt to discuss Georgian ecclesiastical literature is given in N.F. Finck's essay Die georgische Literatur, entered in prestigious editions devoted to world culture.(19) More important in this respect is A. Baumstark's study entered in a corpus of review of oriental Christian literature.(20) The study of Georgian ecclesiastical literature gradually became closely linked to Medieval and Byzantine Studies. It was becoming increasingly clear that the process of Christian thought is manifested in full in medieval Georgian literature and that the latter literature has preserved abundant material which will contribute to a correct solution of cardinal problems of Byzantine philology. At the turn of the 20th century the well-known English Armenist F.C. Conybeare (1856-1924) commenced his study of Georgian ecclesiastical literature. His friendship with the Wardrops and travels in Georgia helped him study the Georgian language. In 1896 he published two studies on two cardinal problems of Georgian ecclesiastical literature: the provenance of the first redaction of the Georgian New Testament and the Georgian redaction of the Balavariani. This was followed by his study of the MSS of Mount Athos and publication of English translations of the Georgian redactions of individual works of Byzantine literature. Harnack's interest in Georgian literature found continuation in various scholarly centres of Europe. The Belgian orientalist Paul Peeters (1870-1950), member (later President) of the Society of Bollandists played an outstanding role in the development of Kartvelian Studies in Europe. He translated into Latin and published Georgian hagiographical works, both translated from the Greek and originals ("Martyrdoms" and "Lives" of Razhden the First Martyr, Shushanik, Konstanti Kakhi, Ilarion Kartveli, Serapion Zarzmeli, Grigol Khandzteli, Euthymius the Athonite, Grigol the Athonite). Peeters studied both individual works of Georgian hagiography ("St. Shushanik - Martyr of the Georgians and the Armenians", "The Khazars in the Martyrdom of Abo Tbileli", "St. Ilarion of Iberia", "The Iberian-Armenian version of the authobiography of Dionysius the Areopagite"), and cardinal problems of medieval Georgian culture: Histoires monastiques géorgiennes(21) and Les débuts du christianisme en Géorgie d'après les sources hagiographiques.(22) Special mention should be made of his study of the Greek-Latin version of Barlaam and Ioasaph and its relation to the Georgian original. The latter study proved a world-scale landmark in the research into this problem: the first Latin translation of Barlaam and Ioasaph and its Greek version (and Georgian version). The American Kartvelologist Robert Blake (1888-1950), Marr's pupil and sometime Professor of Tbilisi State University, played an outstanding role in the study of Georgian church literature. Special mention should be made of his "Catalogue des Manuscrits Géorgiens de la Bibliothèque patriarcale Grecque à Jérusalem"(23) and "Catalogue des Manuscrits Géorgiens de la Bibliothèque de la Laure d'Iviron au Mont Athos.(24) He authored many significant studies in Georgian bibliology and in the field of patrology, published chiefly in the Harvard Theological Review. The interest of European researchers in Georgian literature and in general, Georgian culture, and their scholarly progress in Kartvelian Studies was in almost all cases determined by their contacts with Georgia, Georgian public and scholars. In the 1920s part of Georgian inteligentsia emigrated to Europe owing to the loss of independence by the young Georgian Republic (1917-1921). In the late 1920s Kartvelian Studies was developed by Georgian emigrants. Initially their literary and scholarly work continued in the Georgian language. They founded Georgian newspapers and journals, and published monographs and various collected papers. Rich publicistic literature - largely of political, literary and Kartvelological character - was created in the Georgian language. Review- and research papers as well as monographs on principal problems of Georgian literature were written. Special mention should be made of advances in Rustvelology (Viktor Nozadze, Mikheil Tsereteli, Zurab Avalishvili, Grigol Robakidze, Noe Zhordania, Ekvtime Taqaishvili and others). The immigrant Georgian intellectuals continued their work in Kartvelian Studies not only in the Georgian language. European citizens of Georgian descent published major studies in Kartvelology in Western languages. Most of these studies deal with problems of Georgian literature. Special mention should be made of the contribution of some Kartvelologists to the study of Georgian literature in Europe, particularly, Mikheil Tamarashvili, Mikheil Tarkhnishvili, Grigol Peradze, Grigol Robakidze, Mikheil Tsereteli, Shalva Beridze, Kalistrate Salia, Eka Cherkesi, and others. |
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The foundation of Tbilisi State University formed a new stage in the development of Kartvelian Studies in general, and European Kartvelology in particular. From the beginning scholarly work at Tbilisi University commenced in national disciplines in continuation of the traditions of the Kartvelological School of St.Petersburg. This work was carried on at a high scholarly level, promoting the growth of Kartvelian Studies in Europe as well. European scholars were invited to Tbilisi University for pedagogical work even in fields of Kartvelology. Gifted Georgian scholars from Tbilisi University were sent abroad for study and scholarly work. Close contacts were soon established between European Kartvelologists and Tbilisi University. From the 1930s Western researchers studied the Georgian language, developing into Kartvelologists in Europe, unlike European scholars of the turn of the present century who, as noted above, were frequent guests of Georgia for the same purpose. This was facilitated by the Georgian emigration in Europe and the close scholarly contacts of Tbilisi University with Europe.
In 1932 William Edward Allen's monograph A History of the Georgian People, came out in London, forming a new stage in the development of Kartvelian Studies in Britain. David Marshall Lang continiued Allen's work. Being the most productive Kartvelologist among British researchers, he directed the Caucasian Studies Department in London University for a long time, taught the Georgian language and delivered lectures on cardinal problems of the Georgian language, literature and history. From the standpoint of literary criticism special mention should be made of his numerous studies dealing with questions of the Georgian Balavariani. Among his translations of Georgian literary works and abridged English translations of Georgian original hagiographic works(25) and exact scholarly translations of both Georgian redactions of the Balavariani(26) are notable. Joseph Molitor studied Georgian ecclesiastical literature, namely: the Georgian translation of the New Testament in the context of the oldest versions of the Bible.(27) The study of Georian ecclesiastical literature was raised to a high level by the Belgian Kartvelologist Gerard Garitte (1914-1992). He studied Georgian works of translated ecclesiastical literature, and published their Georgian texts with Latin translations and comments. The scholar sought to establish the place of the Georgian versions among other redactions.(28) James Neville Birdsall successfully continued the study of Georgian literature, particularly, biblical texts. He studied the Georgian text of the New Testament, its provenance and relation to the oldest versions,(29) as well as the traces of the oldest redactions of the Bible in old Georgian writings.(30) Rustaveli's Vepkhistkaosani remained within the interest of European researchers. The well-known German linguist and Kartvelologist Gerhardt Deeters (1892-1961) published papers on Rustaveli's poem. His extensive essay on Georgian literature was published after his death.(31) In 1955 a new German translation of Rustaveli's poem by the Austrian poet Hugo Huppert (1902-1982)(32)was published in Berlin. In the 1970s Rustaveli's poem was translated in a novel way by Hermann Buddensieg. In Germany research on Georgian literature was successfully continued by Julius Assfalg. He was a pupil and coauthor of M. Tarkhnishvili, jointly with Tarkhnishvili he adapted, translated and publised the first volume of K.Kekelidze's fundamental work "A History of Georgian Literature". This book played a major role in the development of Kartvelian Studies in Europe. The Belgian Kartvelologist, Michel van Esbroeck studies Georgian hagiography in relation to Byzantine literature, viz; the structure of the Old Georgian Mravaltavis and their origin and development. Bernard Outtier studies Old Georgian MSS and ecclesiastical writings preserved in them in relation to Byzantine and Eastern Christian literature. He popularizes the Kartvelological literature, published in Georgia in his reviews. B. Martin-Hisard studies Georgian monasticism and related seats of culture and enlightenment in Old Georgia. Thus, research into Old Georgian ecclesiastical literature in Europe has made significant progress since the 1950s. This is understandable if it is borne in mind that among the literatures of Eastern Christian countries medieval Georgian literature was almost the last to become the object of study in world scholarship. This has its reasons: the loss for a long period of Georgian statehood, centuries-old decline of the economic and cultural level of the country, the actual non-existence of a Georgian diaspora. At the same time from the turn of the present century European Medieval, Oriental and Byzantine studies discovered Christian literature in the form of Georgian ecclesiastical literature, which had to be taken into consideration in resolving many philological problems in Byzantine and Oriental Studies. |
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The enhanced interest in Old Georgian ecclestiastical literature did not weaken attention to Georgian secular literature. The solid foundation laid for the study of Old Georgian Secular literature in the 19th century was strengthened and expanded. Modern Georgian literature also entered the sphere of European research. The study of Geprgian literature formed one of the main lines of the work of Gertrude Pätsch (1910-1993). Being a linguist, she studied the structure of the Old Georgian verb. At the same time she did research on Rustaveli, Vazha-Pshavela and K. Gamsakhurdia.(33) She translated Gamsakhurdia's The Hand of a Great Master.
Problems of Georgian literature have appeared in Spanish-language literature as well. In 1984 Gustavo de la Tore Botarro published his own poetic translation of Vepkhistqaosani ("The Man in the Panther's Skin") in Spanish (in Santiago). Prose excerpts from Rustaveli's poem in Spanish were printed for the first time in 1930 in Madrid. The Basque Kartvelologist and linguist Sh. Quintana commenced the translation of Rustaveli's poem into the Basque language. He has compiled and translated into Basque An Anthology of Georgian Poetry. In the 1970s the English-language reader received two new translations of The Man in the Panther's Skin. One is by the English author and well-known Kartvelologist Katharine Vivian.(34) She also translated parts from Kartlis-tskhovreba ("The life of Georgia") and Sulkhan-Saba's Sibrdzne-Sitsruisa ("The Book of Wisdom and Lies"). She publishes studies on Rustaveli's poem, and generally on the classical period of Georgian secular literature.(35) The other translation of Vepkhistqaosani, published in 1977, belongs to the English Kartvelologist Robert Stevenson.(36) He is a well-known researcher of Rustaveli's poem,(37) as well as of other works of Georgian secular literature - Didmouraviani, Omaniani, Amirandarejaniani. He has published an English translation of the latter work .(38) The English researcher Donald Rayfield studies modern Georgian literature. He has translated with comments, Vazha-Pshavela's poems(39) and verses of Titsian Tabidze and Galaktion Tabidze;(40) he studies the lives and works of Georgian symbolists in relation to the same period of Russian poetry. The main line of Luigi Magarotto's work is the study of Georgian symbolism. He has translated into Italian individual masterpieces of Georgian poetry and prose (poems by Galaktion Tabidze and Titsian Tabidze, "On the Gallows" by Ilia Chavchavadze, "The First Word" by Paolo Iashvili). Magarotto has authored numerous encyclopedic articles on Georgian writers. He studies Georgian symbolism and futurism, Ilia Chavchavadze's works and Vazha-Pshavela's poetry.(41) A monograph published in French by the Belgian researcher G. Blancoff-Scarr is devoted to the study of the works of two major representatives of modern Georgian prose, Nodar Dumbadze and Chabua Amirejibi.(42) The well-known Kartvelologist and linguist H.Fähnrich successfully acquaints the German reader with Georgian literature. He writes encyclopedic articles on Georgian writers, translates Georgian fairy-tales into German and is the author of studies on Georgian literature.(43) The German Kartvelologist S. Chotiwari-Jünger successfully studies modern Georgian literature. M.Javakhishvili's novels, K.Gamsakhurdia's works, the prose of N.Dumbadze and O.Chiladze(44) form the object of her study. The review of research into Georgian literature in Europe will not be complete unless reference is made to the Centres of Kartvelian Studies in Europe and to the scholarly journals that have facilitated the study of Georgian culture in Europe and in which Kartvelian Studies has developed. Oxford must be mentioned as first among these centres, viz. the collection of Georgian books and MSS of the Oriental Department of the Bodleian Library, and the Marjory Wardrop Foundation set up by the decision of the Council of Oxford University in 1910, after Marjory Wardrop's death to perpetuate her memory. According to the resolution of the Council the director of the foundation must spend the revenue on the expansion of the Georgian Department of the Bodleian Library, publication of Kartvelological works, getting English students interested in the Georgian world and instruction of the Georgian language, literature and history in Oxford. Over the past 85 years the foundation has upheld these principles with honour. The Georgian Department of the Bodleian library is today the only active Kartvelological library in Europe, a scholarly description of whose fonds has been made by the Oxford Kartvelologist David Barret.(45)On the initiative of the Marjory Wardrop Foundation, many well-known foreign Kartvelologists and visiting scholars from Georgia have lectured in Kartvelology in Oxford. |
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From 1946 the eminent Georgian linguist Kita Chkhenkeli taught the Georgian language at Zurich University. He soon formed a centre for Kartvelian Studies. He taught Georgian to the young Swiss ladies: L. Flury, I. Marschev and R. Neucom. Under Chkhenkeli's guidance they compiled and published a "Georgian-German Dictionary" (in 1974) and founded the Georgian publishing-house "Amirani". From 1964 Marschev headed the Department of the Georgian language in Zurich and delivered lectures on the Georgian language and the history of Georgian literature. Flury directed the Georgian publishing-house. Jointly with Chkhenkeli, Neucom translated the Visramiani (in 1957), "Modern Georgian Stories" (in 1970), "The Man in the Panther's Skin" (in 1974) into German. She authored articles on individual specimens of Georgian literature in German-language dictionaries. (46)
In 1935-1937 the journal Georgica was published in London in English. Only three volumes came out in five parts, published by the Georgian Historical Society. The Society sponsored the cooperation in the journal both of foreign scholars (W.E. D. Allen, E. Denison Ross, J. F. Baddeley, Lehman-Haupt) and of Georgian scholars residing in Europe (A.Gugushvili, E. Taqaishvili, M. Tsereteli, G.Peradze, V. Nozadze, Z. Avalishvili, T. Margvelashvili, G. Gvazava, G. Bochoridze), as well Kartvelologists residing in Georgia (N. Marr, G. Chitaia, S. Kakabadze, A. Javakhishvili, G. Leonidze, I. Javakhishvili, L. Muskhelishvili, S. Janashia).The journal dealt with general Georgian and Caucasian studies, as indicated in its subtitle Georgia, A Journal of Georgian and Caucasian Studies. It carried papers on problems of Georgian literature proper, mainly on the Man in the Panther's Skin. The journal Bedi Kartlisa played the most important role in the development of Georgian Studies abroad. It was issued in Paris in Georgian in 1948-1964, and in French in 1957-84, with the parallel name of Revue de Kartvelologie. Kalistrate and Nino Salia were the publishers of the journal. Whereas at the beginning it was a journal of the Georgian emigration, it gradually developed into a general Kartvelological periodical abroad. Foreign as well as Georgian scholars collaborated in it. The journal was sponsored by the French Academy of Sciences. European Kartvelologists: D. Lang, R. Stevenson, H. Vogt, J. Garitte, B. Outtier, K. Vivian, M. Esbroeck, K. Salia, G. Robakidze, M. Tsereteli, M. Tarkhnishvili, G. Kobakhidze and others published their studies in the journal on problems of Georgian literature. The last issue (v. 42) of Bedi Kartlisa was edited by K. Salia in 1984. A new scholarly publication, Review des Études géorgiennes et caucasiennes, attempted to continue the traditions of the journal. George Dumezil was its founder, Giorgi Sharashidze - editor and Dominique Gauthier-Eligulachvili-secretary. The first issue of the journal came out in 1985 in Louvain, afterwards in Paris. It is an annual journal. The contribution made by the joint scholarly German-language journal Georgica of the Jena F.Schiller University and Tbilisi State University is important for the development of Kartvelian Studies in Europe. Hainz Fähnrich is the founder and permanent editor of the journal. The foundation of the journal was preceded by three issues of the Proceedings of the University of Jena, entitled Sakartvelo ("Georgia") and published on the initiative of Fähnrich (in 1973, 1975, 1977). Its last number was devoted solely to Georgian literature. Georgica is an annual scholarly journal. It is directed by two editorial boards: those of the Universities of Jena and Tbilisi. Sh. Dzidziguri and M. Lordkipanidze were the editors from Tbilisi University. Since 1990 the journal has been published in Konstanz, as a joint organ of four Universities: Jena, Tbilisi, Saarbrücken and Konstanz. The material in the journal is presented according to the areal principle. Papers of Georgian as well as German and, occasionally, other foreign researchers are published in it. Western European researchers as well are among the contributors, viz: G. Pätsch, N. Birdsall, K. Vivian, I. Bitsadze, H. Fähnrich, L. Magarotto, S. Chotiwari-Jünger. There is yet another scholarly collection known under the name of Georgica in European literary criticism. In 1985 in Rome the materials of a seminar on Iranian, Ural-Altaic and Caucasian Studies of Venice University, was published in Italian under the name of Georgica I, edited by the Italian Kartvelologists Luigi Magarotto and Gianroberto Scarcia. The second issue of Georgica II, Materiali sulla Georgia Occidentale, was edited by the same scholars in 1988 (Bologna). Since the 1970s problems of Georgian literature have gradually become the subject of discussion at world symposia and congresses: initially problems of Georgian ecclesiastical literature found there way to the world congresses of Byzantinists. Old-Georgian ecclesiastical literature is a major ramification of Byzantine literature. Hence, the problems of Georgian Christian literature have broadened the sphere of research on Byzantinism, gradually gaining a place on the agenda of meetings of Byzantinists. Later, problems of Georgian literature entered the agenda of world Congresses of Medievalists. Since the 1990s new tendencies are observable in the scholarly-cultural centres of Europe. There are cases of conferences and symposia being held on problems of literature proper. An international symposium devoted to Shota Rustaveli on 11-12 April, 1991, held at Turku University in Finland, was a pleasant beginning. It was sponsored by the Society of Oriental Studies of Finland and Turku University. The Symposium was devoted to the publication of the first Finnish translation of The Man in the Panther's Skin. By itself the history of this translation is noteworthy, for it sheds light on the collaboration of European scholarly circles on problems of Georgian literature. The Finnish translator Olavi Linnus decided to translate Rustaveli's poem into Finnish. The Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian literature of the Georgian Academy of Sciences provided him with consultation. But the translator mainly relied on Marjory Wardrop's English translation. Hence, the only person who managed to review and comment on the translation was David Barret, a Kartvelologist, with a knowledge of Finnish, who was a collaborator of the Georgian Department of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The collaboration of Linnus and Barret continued for years and was crowned with the publication of Linnus' poetical translation of Rustaveli's poem in Finnish.(47) The Turku Symposium brought together in Finland researchers of Georgian literature from Europe (K. Vivian, D. Barret, D. Lang, Vrej Nersessian, Winfried Boeder, Tatyana Nikolskaya, Olavi Linnus and others) and Rustvelologists from Tbilisi. |
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Over the last seven years the Day of the Kartvelologist has been systematically held at London University in the first decade of May. The English Kartvelologist Tamara Dragadze is the initiator and permanent organizer of this tradition. Topics of Georgian literature are often on the agenda of these meetings.
Three international symposia on Kartvelian Studies were held at Tbilisi State University in 1987, 1988 and 1994. The materials of each symposium are being printed as collected papers in Georgian and Western languages. All the symposia had a Georgian literary section in which foreign Kartvelologists took part: M. van Esbroeck, Katharine Vivian, Pedro Badenas, Dodona Kiziria, Luigi Magarotto, Friedrik Thordarson, Ivan Bitsadze, Steffi Chotiwari-Jünger, Vakhtang Jobadze, Konstantin Lerner, Patricia Karlin and Nino Qaukhchishvili. Support from the scholarly centres of Georgia towards the development of Kartvelian Studies in Europe is gradually increasing. Georgian specialists are oftener sent to Western scholarly centres to deliver lectures in various spheres of Kartvelology. Foreign students are frequently taught at higher educational institutions of Georgia. A summer school-seminar for Kartvelian Studies has begun functioning in Tbilisi. It gives foreign students and Kartvelologists an opportunity to take an intensive course of the Georgian language, to attend general lectures on Kartvelological topics in foreign languages and to get acquainted with scholarly centres and historical monuments of Georgia. The Summer school-seminar is organized by the Centre for Kartvelian Studies attached to Tbilisi State University. Another glance with the mind's eye at the history of research on Georgian literature in Europe will show that Georgian literature is gradually but firmly becoming the object of European literary research. Of course, the study of Georgian literature still remains the object of the initiative of individual scholars. The above-cited editorial boards and libraries mainly serve to popularize this literature in Europe. So far, there is no scholarly centre in Europe engaged in a systematic study of Georgian literature. Nor are there any institutes and university departments studying Georgian literature. I hope, this is a matter of the future. Beginning from the early Middle Ages Georgian literature has been an organic part of European civilization. It is a voluminous literature with profound problems. Hence, I believe, it will occupy its rightful place in the intellectual life of Europe. Part Two of the monograph comprises three sections. The first entitled "Georgian Literature in the German-speaking Countries," has been written by Doctor Steffi Chotiwari-Jünger, Professor of Humboldt University in Berlin. It reviews the Kartvelological works on Georgian literature, written in German and published in Europe. The purpose of the review is to set forth the basic propositions of each study and to give a summary of the problems posed in it. The review follows the chronological principle, beginning with Solomon Schweigger's book Eine neue Reissbeschreibung auss Teutschland nach Constantinopol und Jerusalem, published in 1608. This is the first among German-language books containing approximate evidence on Georgian writing and literature. The section ends with an analysis of the translations of Georgian literature published in the 1980s in German-language literary dictionaries and encyclopaedias, and with a critique of the ideas on Georgian literature found in the review of the "Multinational Soviet Literature". The second section of this part is "Georgian Literature in English Literary Criticism", authored by Doctor Marika Odzeli, Professor of the Laboratory for Research on Georgian-Foreign Literary Contacts at Tbilisi State University. Studies on Georgian literature, and generally, information on Georgian verbal culture, published in Britain, are presented chronologically and discussed in this section. The author begins with the earliest evidence on Georgia in English literature and ends with a report on the participation of British scholars in the Kartvelological Symposia held in the late 1980s. The last section of the same part is "Georgian Literature in European Translations". Its author is Sesili Gogiberidze, Cand. Philol. Sci., research-collaborator of the Centre for Kartvelian Studies. She reviews the bibliographies of the translations of Georgian literature, just compiled and entered in Part Four of the present monograph. Some regularities connected with translations of Georgian literature in European languages have been noticed and analyzed. The interrelationship of four English translations of Rustaveli's The Man in the Panther's Skin, a masterpiece of Georgian literature, are discussed and the specificity of each translation is indicated. It is demonstrated once again that Georgian literature is a significant world of literary and aesthetic perception to Western literary criticism, viewed from various angles and interest in different periods.
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