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Georgian Byzantine manuscripts

Inscribed 2011

What is it

A collection of 451 Byzantine manuscripts from Georgia, dating from the 10th to the 15th centuries.

Why was it inscribed

The manuscripts are a unique remnant and resource of Georgia and the Eastern Roman Empire, in both content and importance. They help illustrate development of Georgian Byzantine culture and expression over the medieval period.

The content of the manuscripts is in many cases unique, preserving writing lost in Greek and other languages as well as the names and works of Byzantine authors known and unknown. The collection gives a striking overview of Georgian cultural heritage and the literary processes of the Byzantine period.

Where is it

National Centre of Manuscripts, Tbilisi, Georgia

The Eastern Roman Empire was centred on the city of Byzantium, renamed Constantinople in AD 335 when the Emperor Constantine I chose it as his capital. The split between the Eastern and Western Empires came around the end of the 4th century AD when Rome was buckling under internal instability and corruption and waves of attack from various tribes. By contrast, although there were periods of setback, the Eastern Roman Empire – also known as the Byzantine Empire – grew as a first-rank power with strong economic, cultural and religious influences within its lands and beyond.

Georgia’s location on the eastern shores of the Black Sea left it in the sphere of influence of the Roman Empire for over a millennium. The country became a client state of Rome when the Romans conquered the Caucasus region. Its conversion to Christianity in the 4th century meant not just geographical and political closeness but also ties to the empire in religion and culture, until its fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

These influences are reflected in the magnificent collection of Georgian Byzantine manuscripts. The 451 works span a period of six centuries, so reflecting the development of Byzantine-influenced Georgian religion and literature both under the empire and after its fall.

Cover of the ‘Alaverdi Four Gospels’ (AD 1054)

The ‘Berta Four Gospels’ (12th century)

Pages from the ‘Vani Four Gospels’ (12th-13th centuries)

A page from the ‘Gelati Four Gospels’ (12th century)

Centres of Georgian culture existed across the region and further south into the Holy Land, and the manuscripts were created in all these places. The manufacture of manuscript books called for successive, interconnected processes – producing parchment, rewriting, painting text pages and decoration – and was usually the combined work of several specially trained individuals. Among the most notable centres were monasteries in Georgia itself, in Palestine and on Mount Sinai, in Jerusalem and in Bulgaria, where works were translated from the Greek and original hymnographies and liturgical works were created. The development of the Georgian alphabet and the movement towards cursive script can be traced through the works.

Illustrated manuscripts in the Byzantine style spread to Georgia, where the techniques of illustration were learned. The manuscripts in the collection are lavishly decorated, with detailed illustrations and animal and floral decorative elements characteristic of the Byzantine world. Contemporary painters normally represented space by means of a gold background and The Gospel from Mokvi, dated 1300, was actually made on gold.

Most of the work is religious and sacred in nature, ranging from Bible expositions through hymnographies to works of theology and polemics. However, the works of the Byzantine Church fathers are particularly notable: these include texts by John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great and Maximus the Confessor.

Much of the collection is unique, containing material not seen anywhere else. Some texts preserve works lost in Greek and other languages; some make references to Byzantine authors whose work is known; others document the life and works of writers previously unknown in the modern era.

In addition to religious and liturgical texts, there are also secular works relating to law, history, literature, astronomy and medicine. Several of the religious works also contain secular passages, such as descriptions of battle scenes in a book of psalms. Some of these texts also contain information that is no longer known or used, and so is only available through written sources such as these. In addition, the terminology they use in relation to financial and administrative systems and aspects of society and culture, is characteristic of the Byzantine era.

A page from the ‘Alaverdi Four Gospels’ (AD 1054)

‘The Works of Gregory the Theologian’ (12th century)