• THE LOST KINGDOM OF TAO-KLARJETI   (KATHERINE VIVIAN)
• THE VIEW OF A GERGIAN HOLY FATHER ON THE GREEK-ROMAN ECCLESIASTICAL SPLIT IN A 13 TH-CENTURY   LATIN COLLECTION   (ELGUJA KHINTIBIDZE)

 Katherine Vivian 
(Kartvelologist, N4, Spring 1997) 

 In September last year with Mrs.Valerie Slemeck – a perfect fellow traveler – I joined an expedition to the ancient kingdom of Tao-Klarjeti. This is now a part of Eastern Turkey. The journey was organized by British Museum Tours, with the title “Lost Kingdom of the Christian Orient”. Our leader was Mrs. Jine Ward, and the lecturer Dr. Anthony  Eastmond, a Fellow of the British Academy, now at the Department of Art History in the University of Warwick. He was at the Georgian Summer School at Shav-Nabada in 1990, and is the only British scholar studying Georgian art and architecture. We had also an experienced Turkish guide, Tim Ucih Bilgör – altogether a highly competent team. 
 We started from Trebizon , last outpost of the Byzantine Empire, and travelled eastward along the Black Sea coast, to drive through the Pontic mountains into the region of Tao-Klarjeti, among the deep and winding valleys of the Chorokhi. 
 In Trebizond we visited the Citadel and other medieval buildings, some very well preserved, such as the 13th-century (where we saw the finest surviving frescoes of that period) church of  Hagia Sophia. The carved ornamentation which adorns the facades, walls and window arches is of an artistry recalling that of  many Georgian buildings of the period – such as Sveti-Tskhoveli in Mtskheta, the cathedral of Gelati, the bell tower at Vardzia and the church of Otskhi. Other examples can be found in The Arts of Ancient Georgia, by R. Mepisashvili and V. Tsintsadze, with the comment that “some decorative techniques were used, as at Ateni, to help to concentrate the worshipper’s attention on the altar area and the dome”. 
 In the morning we climbed a steep winding path to the 6th-century Orthodox monastery of Sumela, high on an almost sheer cliff face. It was a stiff climb but one of great beauty, the precipitous side of the path falling deep through a luxuriant cloud of trees. The monastery is a large complex of buildings cut into caves in the rockface, as at Vardzia, not far from distant across the frontier. 
 Leaving our hotel in Trenizon we travelled up into the  Pontic mountains towards the Zigana Pass, to stay three nights at Artvin. This was our base for exploring the kingdom of Tao. Our bus followed zigzag roads up and down the mountainsides, from old capital of Artanuji to the churches of Doliskana and Ishkhani and the monastic complex of 10th-century Otkta-eklesia (Dortkilisa). The 7th-century church of Ishkhani was more than once rebuilt, and little remains on the original structure but the finely decorated arcading of the eastern apse. The church of Bana, also 7th-century, was rebuilt in the 9th and damaged in the 19th-century. However, ornamentation of interesting design can be seen in the ruins, Of all the architectural remains that we saw, I remember the great church of Otskhi as the most impressive. 

 “Despite the colossal size of the building, the architect managed to keep the lines clean and the forms delicate. The interior with its vertical emphasis is filled with light, which streams in through the numerous windows  and plays many different surfaces” . 
It was built in the 10th-century, of the same period as the church at Alaverdi and the cathedral of Bagrat at Kutaisi, of which I was vividly reminded. The impression of these majestic structures make may go beyond the purely aesthetic to touch a deeper, more widely ranging awareness. 
 All the way, mountains rose high as an eagle’s flight on every side of us, descending forested slopes to river valleys below. The trees were of many varieties, and among them a house, half hidden, could occasionally be seen. Most of these scattered dwellings were built in the Georgian style. We had noticed that whereas in Trebizond all women wore the black chador, covering the head and whole body, with only a slit for the eyes, in Tao the women were dressed in bright colours, with a scarf over the head leaving  the face exposed. I spoke to one or two of the people we met, asking them  if they spoke Georgian: “kartulad laparakobth?” They seemed to understand that, but I could make nothing of their replies except the word laz. That part of the country may have been in Lazistan. 
 Drink was a problem unit we arrived in Istanbul. Pre-dinner drinks were beer or Coca-Cola. When I rashly  asked for a gin and tonic  I was offered, at the first hotel, a large bottle of gin, nothing less. Next time a full glass arrived, of which I took a hopeful mouthful. My expression made the others laugh: it was neat gin. 
 We drove on to stay at Kars, formerly in Armenia but now part of Turky, where the fortress has been taken over by the army. From Kars there was a visit to Ani, great and famous seat of the Armenian kings and the site of many a fierce battle between Georgians, Persians and Turks.  I did mot myself go to Ani, but others who went described the well preserved churches, with the wall paintings of St. Georgy of Tigran Honenc and the miracle of St.Nino. 
 In Erzrum, where we stayed the following two nights, some of us were taken to see a small carpet factory. We watched the process of weaving, and were told about the origin of designs in different regions. Modern materials – silk and wool – are woven into traditional designs. Valerie and I each bought a carpet, of a quality which would be hard to find in England at a comparable price. 
 In the morning we visited the 13th-century Cifte Minaret Medrese, a mosque with twin minarets. There, as is the custom, we took off our shoes and the women covered there heads and shoulders. Tim, our Turkish guide, explained to us how the Quran has to be read in a certain rhythm. Then  the Imam appeared and read out a passage, which Tim afterwards translated. This proved to be an injunction not to neglect one’s parents – the sin which is not forgiven. 
 From Erzurum we flew to Istanbul for the last day of our journey. We had a drink at the famed Pera Palaca hotel with its exuberant decor. The next morning was spent at the Ka’ariye museum, the old Khora monastery. This ancient building is one of the best preserved examples of Byzantine architecture, with the finest surviving Byzantine mosaics and frescoes in the world. Although these had been whitewashed in accordance with the Quranic taboo on representation of the human form, they were found to be undamaged when the whitewash was removed in 1879. Both in structure and ornamentation, it was a place of incomparable beauty. 
 Tim had arranged a lunch of delicious fresh seafood at a restaurant overlooking the Bosphorus. After this there was a visit to the great mosque of Hagia Sophia. On the following morning we flew back to London – the end of a deeply rewarding journey. 
 
 
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THE VIEW OF A GEORGIAN HOLY FATHER ON THE GREEK-ROMAN ECCLESIASTICAL 
SPLIT IN A 13 TH-CENTURY LATIN COLLECTION  

Elguja Khintibidze 
(Kartvelologist, N6, Spring 2000)
 

The problems of the rich medieval Georgian literature are still in need of study from many angles. Especially important is the question of the introduction of this literature into the process of world Christian thought. Is there awareness abroad of medieval original Georgian literature. Which texts of Georgian literature went in the past beyond the confines of the Georgian language? From when did Georgian literature become known in Europe? These are the questions to which it is so far difficult to give answers owing to the inadequate study of foreign sources. Assumptions have been made on some of these questions by Georgian scholars, e.g. on the possible dissemination of Rustaveli's work in the Arab-language world. However, so far there is insufficient evidence in support of this hypothesis. 
 More reasonable is the view on the possible translation into Greek of Georgian writings connected with the 10th-11th-centuries by the great Athonites (Ioane, Euthymius and Giorgi the Hagiorites). The point is that the Georgian scholars on Mount Athos enjoyed great authority in the Greek world. The Greek Church canonized them as saints of the Orthodox Church. The festival of the Georgian founders of Iviron is today too a great event on Mount Athos. Lessons referring to them in liturgical practice occur frequently in the Greek MSS of Mount Athos. Some dependence of the synaxary Lives, written somewhat later to reflect their activities, on Georgian material has been demonstrated. Yet, it is difficult to point to foreign translations of original Georgian writings or extracts from them, even to the 19th-century. (Armenian translations of Georgian philosophical and historical literary sources form an exception). 
 Under the circumstances, I believe it highly important to point to a fact hitherto unknown to Georgian researchers and unreflected in the history of Georgian literature: a 13th-century Latin metaphrasis of a passage from Giorgi “Mtsire's” Life of Giorgi the Athonite, extant as Greek and Latin texts interpolated in MSS of the turn of the 14th-century. 
  In 1060-65, at the invitation and backing of Bagrat IV, Giorgi the Hagiorite carried out a major ecclesiastical reform in Georgia. Having done his duty to the country, Giorgi was returning to Mount Athos, taking along 80 orphans to bring them up at the monastery. The monk made a stopover in Constantinople to deliver a letter from the Georgian king to the Emperor Constantine Ducas (1059-1067). Highly placed Georgian nobles at the Byzantine Royal Court introduced him to the Court. The Emperor invited Giorgi to a reception where the Church split between the Greeks and Romans was discussed. Along with high officials of the Royal Court, the discussion  was attended by Romans and Armenian nobles. Noticing Giorgi's erudition in theological dogmatics and liturgics, the Emperor charged him with the role of chief arbiter in settling the controversial details of the dispute. The dialog of Constantine 10th Ducas and the Georgian monk was described by the disciple of Georgian holy father Giorgi Mtsire in  The Life of Giorgi the Hagiorite.  First, the Emperor asked Giorgi about the attitude of the Georgian faith to Greek Orthodoxy. "This is the true religion of our nation. And once having learned this, we have never swerved to the left or to the right", the monk replied. Then the Emperor asked the Georgian monk to explain the differing details of the Greek and Roman liturgy. The latter defined the symbols of eucharistic practice, adding: "Many heresies came among the Greeks from the beginning and they deviated many times, while the Romans, knowing God once, have not deviated nor have heresies come among them". To the Emperor's query about the faith of the Armenians the holy monk gave this terse reply: "Their false faith has no name". The Emperor "was filled with joy and offered thanks to God". The Armenian nobles were shamefaced, "while the Roman princes were greatly pleased... they told the holy man: "We shall take you into the presence of the Holy Pope". 
 The opposition between the Roman and Byzantine Churches became further aggravated after the official separation (1053). As is clear from the above episode, Roman nobles showed great liking for and interest in the personality of Giorgi the Hagiorite. It should also be borne in mind that the dispute at the Court of Constantine 10th  Ducas was recorded a few years later in literary form in Giorgi Mtsire's Life of Giorgi the Hagiorite. Now Mount Athos was the venue of contacts of Georgian and Roman hermits. With the assistance of the Georgians, the Latins had built a monastery near Iviron, in the lifetime of Ioane and Euthymius, and their cultural and friendly contacts with the Georgians intensified. Hence it may be surmised that the Latin world must have known the above story and must have shown interest in the relevant passage entered in the Georgian hagiographic work. 
 This hypothesis is supported by a paper, "Texts of Religious Discussion in the Presence of the Emperor Constantine 10th Ducas", written by the Roman researcher Georg Hofmann and printed in an anniversary Festschrift dedicated to Giovani Galbiati, Chairman of the Library of Oriental Studies in Milan (Fontes Ambrosiani, XXVII, Milano 1951, 249-262 ). The paper presents Greek and Latin texts containing a peculiar periphrasis of the story described above, and based on three 13th-14th -cent. MSS. 
 Greek and Latin translations of a passage from Giorgi Mtsire's Life of Giorgi the Hagiorite is entered in the well-known collection Thesaurus fidei whose compilation is linked to the name of  Bonaccorsi of Bologna. This Dominican monk flourished for more than forty years in Greece. His death is dated to ca 1275. Hofmann names three MSS of this work: 
1. The Parisinus graecus 1251 (earlier Colbert  fonds 3285) of the Bibliothecae Nationale is dated to ca the turn of the 14th-century. The passage of our interest, with the Greek and Latin texts appears on leavs 124-126. 
  2. Parisinus graecus 1252 (Colbert 2567) is dated to ca the turn of the 14th-century. It is slightly later than the Parisinus graecus 1251. The passage of the Life of the Giorgi the Hagiorite in Greek and Latin occurs on leaves 110-111. 
 3. The Ambrosianus graecus 253 (according to the old numbering: D78 sup.) of the Ambrosius Library of Milan. The MS is dated to ca 1327 and depends on the above MS (Parisinus 1252). Ambrosianus graecus 253 contains only the Greek text fully, and the Latin partly. Here only the Greek text of our interest appears on leaves 158-159. 
 Upon a study of the MS of our interest, Hofmann concluded that the second MS (Parisinus graecus 1252) depends on the first (Parisinus graecus 1251). The copyist of the second MS adjusted or emended the Latin text according to the Greek text, or possibly the original. The Greek text of the third MS (Ambrosianus graecus 253) stems from the second MS. 
 As noticed by Hofmann, the passage on the religious dispute at the Court of Constantinople 10th Ducas, entered in Bonaccorsi's Collection, clearly stems from the text of the Life of Giorgi the Hagiorite. This conclusion, in my views, is supported by the following arguments: 
 a) The opening passage of the Thesaurus fidei points out that the story is borrowed from the Life of the Holy Monk Giorgi of the Holy Mountain: in vita beati Georgii de Monte Sancto. 
b) According to the passage of the Thesaurus fidei, the religious dispute took place in the same setting and circumstances as indicated in the Life of Giorgi the Hagiorite: the Byzantine Imperial Court; the Georgian monk Giorgi speaks on the initiative of the Emperor; besides Greeks, the dispute is attended by Roman and Armenian nobles. 
 c) Similarly to the Life, the dialogue in the Greek and Latin texts is conducted in the form of questions and answers: the Emperor asks the monk questions and the latter replies to them. 
 d) The questions asked by the Emperor and the answers of St. Giorgi the Athonite are the same: specific details of the eucharist (the use of yeast, salt and wine diluted with water), the purity of Georgian Orthodoxy, deviations to heresy by the Greeks in the past, the religious steadfastness of the Romans beginning with the Apostle Peter, the disparagement of the Armenian creed. 
 e) The narration of the outcome of the religious dispute is similar: the Emperor's satisfaction with the answers of the Georgian monk, the great joy of the Romans, the shaming of the Armenians. 
 f) I collated the Greek-Latin text in Bonaccorsi’s collection with the corresponding passage in Giorgi Mtsire’s Life of Giorgi the Athonite with publication of the Georgian, Greek and Latin parallel texts (Collected Papers ANAJESIS, Philological Researches, Tbilisi 1999, pp 310-323). I note that the provenance of the Greek and Latin texts from the Georgian is self-evident. It should be observed, however, that we are not dealing with a translation in the modern meaning of the word. The Greek and Latin texts are a freely adapted translation of the respective passages of the Georgian Life. Nor does the Latin text follow the Greek word for word. 
 The Georgian-Greek-Latin parallel texts raise many questions for researchers to answer: 
a) Problems of the relationship of state and church: the relationship of the Georgian 
state with Byzantium and Europe early in the second half of the 11th century; the interest of Constantine 10th Ducas in these ecclesiastical issues and some loyalty shown by him towards the Romans, and so on. 
b) The symphathies expressed by Giorgi the Hagiorite, the leading authority of the 
Georgian church for the Roman Church at the early stage of the ecclesiastical split between the Greeks and Latins. In discussing this fact, parallel facts from Early and Late medieval Georgian’s political and church life are worthy of notice: the correspondence of Kyrion, the Catholicos of Kartli, with the Pope on the details of the final transfer of the Church of Kartli to Dyophysitism (7th-century), the letters of Queen Rusudan and Ivane the Commander-in-Chief to Pope Honorius 3th and the Pope’s replies (13th-century), the correspondence of Pope Urben 8th with Teimuraz 1th and Cathalicos Zakaria (17th-century), Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani’s visit to the Pope (18th-century), etc. 
c)   The interpretation by the Holy Giorgi the Athonite of the symbols of liturgics and eucharist (the yeast, salt and wine diluted with water) and search for the liturgical-dogmatic sources on which this interpretation is based. 
 At present my interest in this highly significant and unique fact of 13th-century Georgian-Greek-Latin literary contacts is primarily philological. From this angle, a few questions arise, urgently calling for answers. 
 From the factual material, brought to light to date, we learn only that the 11th- century original Georgian hagiographic work The Life of Giorgi the Athonite was known to the Roman world already in the 13th-century. Furthemore, a highly important passage of the Greco-Latin  religious polemic was translated from it into Greek and Latin and entered in Thesaurus fidei, a highly prestigious  collection of the Roman Church. Questions remain to which answers are not feasible without bringing additional material to light. How did the Dominican monk Bonaccorsi come into possession of the Georgian text? In other words, from what text did he translate this passage into Latin – from the Georgian or from an already available Greek translation of The Life of Giorgi the Hagiorite. 
 To answer this question I studied the extant works expressive of the life of Giorgi the Hagiorite: “The Life and Activities of our Holy Fathers Ioane, Euthimius and Giorgi, the Builders of our Holy and the Greatest Georgian Lavra”, the so-called Bioc kai politeia, and  The Life of Gorgi the Athonite, entered in the Russian collection  Athos Patericon compiled on Mt. Athos in the 19th-century. According to the compiler of the collection, the Life must have been borrowed from the Greek collection Akolojuia twn agioreitwn paterwn. Both the above-named  texts are of later date  - composed in the 18th and 19th -centuries, and the passage from Giorgi the Athonites Life in question is not entered or adapted in the interests of the Greek Orthodox Church. 
 Thus, today we know only that in the 13th-century the Italian monk Bonaccorsi entered the Latin and Greek translations of one passage from Giorgi Mtsire’s Life of Giorgi  the Hagiorite in the Thesaurus fidei.  The question remains open as to whether he had this passage translated from the Georgian text of the Life and then did it into Latin, or there already existed a Greek translation of Giorgi Mtsire’s  Life of  Giorgi the Hagiorite. 
 The Former of these assumptions seem closer to the truth, for from the 11th-century, the text of Giorgi Mtsire’s work had already  been entered in Georgian manuscripts of the Georgian monastery on Mount Athos. The Geotgiam Athonite monks had a long-standing friendship with the Latin monks of Mount Athos. Early in the 11th-century the Georgians welcomed the Latin monks, supporting them in establishing themselves on Athos and in building their own monastery. In the middle of same century the Latins backed the Georgians in arranging the translation into Latin of Barlaam and Iosadaph, written in Greek by St. Euthimius the Athonite. Thus, it is conceivable that during his forty years of missionary activity in Greece the Latin monk Bonaccorsi visited the Latin monks on Mount Athos and established contacts with the Georgian monastery of Iviron through them. 
 I should note here that this hitherto unknown publication was brought to light through the purposeful activity of the Center of the Kartvelological School attached to Tbilisi State University. Being awarded a NATO Grant, I worked in 1994-96 on the compilation of a monograph on the Research into Georgian Literature in Europe. A large team of the collaborators of our Center and of foreign Kartvelologists was involved in the implementation of the project. In 1995 and 1996, while working on Italian material in the Apostolic Library of the Vatican with my junior colleague and former student Gaga Shurghaia, at present collaborator of the Apostolic Library. We came across a rather vague reference in a volume of Bibliotheca Sanctorum to Greek and Latin translations of extracts of the Georgian redaction of the Life of Giorgi the Athonite. It remained to be ascertained whether we were dealing with the existence of a Greek translation of the Life of Giorgi the Athonite - a view current in Georgian scholarship - or some hitherto unknown material. I succeeded in clarifying the question in march 1999 while working on the same monograph in the Bodleian Library in Oxford by identifying the above-presented publication. 
 
 
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