Julieta Gaboidze

Abstract 

Innovations and Challenges in the New Academic Two-Volume Edition of Nikoloz Baratashvili’s Works The preparation of a new academic two-volume edition of Nikoloz Baratashvili’s works represents a major undertaking in contemporary Georgian textual scholarship. The last complete scholarly edition of the poet’s works, edited by Ivane Lolashvili and Akaki Gats’erelia and published in 1972, has long since become a bibliographical rarity. Moreover, existing editions are incomplete and no longer meet modern scholarly, technological, and textological standards. A central objective of the new edition is the establishment of authoritative canonical texts. The diversity of textual variants found in published collections creates significant difficulties for researchers, editors, and educators. In addition, orthographic modernization introduced in previous editions has often obscured the linguistic features of the period and altered the stylistic character of Baratashvili’s poetry. As the highest form of scholarly-critical publication, an academic edition must encompass the entirety of an author’s literary and documentary legacy. Previous editions of Baratashvili’s works have not included the documentary materials preserved in the National Archives of Georgia. The second volume of the new edition will therefore publish, for the first time, a comprehensive collection of documents relating to the poet’s life and activities. It will also contain a complete bio-bibliography of Baratashvili and scholarship devoted to him. In parallel with the edition, an online bilingual digital chronicle of the poet’s life and works has been developed. The edition is based on several key textological principles: the establishment of canonical texts according to autograph manuscripts and the author’s final creative intention; the reassessment of poem attributions; the revision of the dating of selected poems and private correspondence; the expansion of scholarly commentary; and the identification of previously obscure historical figures and personal references. The editorial process has revealed several significant challenges. Manuscript collections preserved at the National Centre of Manuscripts contain copies produced by various scribes, many of which include substantial textual and editorial variants. These differences suggest the existence of now-lost source texts. One notable example is found in a manuscript copy made by Dimitri Kipiani, where a politically significant line differs from the accepted version, fundamentally altering the meaning of the passage and creating what may be regarded as a distinct redaction. The study of autograph and copied manuscripts has also provided compelling evidence against the longstanding attribution of the pseudonym “Mirian Iveri” to Baratashvili. Furthermore, newly examined archival documents have made it possible to clarify the poet’s date of birth, a matter that has remained disputed in scholarship. The new academic edition thus provides a substantially expanded foundation for future Baratashvili studies and Georgian textual scholarship in general. Keywords: Nikoloz Baratashvili; Academic Edition; Textual Criticism; Manuscript Studies; Canonical Text; Georgian Literature; Digital Humanities.

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