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ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი

ასოცირებული პროფესორი

სამცხე-ჯავახეთის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი

მოწვეული პროფესორი

თბილისი, საქართველო

ORCID: 0000-0002-7808-8722

nestan.sulava@tsu.ge

 

Kartvelishvili edition of "Vefkhistkaosani" and Raphiel Eristavi

The 1888 edition of "Vefkhistkaosni", as well as the 1712 Vakhtang sixth edition and the Brosset-Chubinashvili-Falavandishvili editions of 1841, are critically established texts prepared by the "Vefkhistkaosani" text-setting commission. The style and method of work of each commission corresponded to the requirements of the era, the scientific level, in particular, the style and level of work of textological science, in which each of them was established and prepared for publication. To determine the text of Shota Rustveli's poem, at the turn of the 70s-80s of the 19th century, in 1880, a commission was created, whose members, based on the comparison of different manuscripts and editions of the poem, tried to restore the Rustveli text. To carry out the work, an authoritative and competent commission of Georgian writers and scientists was created, which, despite the presence of hindering problems - the main problem was the lack of a sufficient number of manuscripts - still met intensively.

Written and oral sources testify that Rafiel Eristavi, Iacob Gogebashvili and Iona Meunargia were the initiators of the work on the preparation of the new edition of "Vefkhistkaosani", who set the goal of the publication to determine the text of the new edition based on the comparison of the printed text and manuscripts. In the first joint newsletter of Rafiel Eristavi, Iacob Gogebashvili and Iona Meunargia, published in #241 of the newspaper "Droeba" on November 15, 1880, their opinions on the preparation of a new edition of "Vepkhistkaosani" were formulated. They especially called on the experience of working on Homer's writings in the ancient era and in this context noted that what Homer was for the Greeks, Rustveli is for Georgia. Rafiel Eristavi, Iacob Gogebashvili and Iona Meunargia were the first to compare these two bumblebee creators. They talked about the purpose of the future edition, how it should be and how the new edition, prepared by the commission, would be different from the previous editions. The goals of the future commission were set: 1. agreement of the text of "The Man in the Panter’s skin" with traditional readings of manuscripts and consideration of edition options: restoration of missing places according to manuscript data and removal of added/added stanzas; i.e. The text had to be kept on the traces of manuscript variants and editions; 2. Correct spelling and orthography and 3. If possible, find out the identity of the interpolators, separate their insert/appendix stanzas from the text. The authors of the letter aimed to restore the biography of the poet based on the data available at that time. After that, there was a request to the public regarding requests for handwritten books and to specific persons to participate in the work of the "The Man in the Panter’s Skin" text-setting commission. The authors of the letter presented a plan for the implementation of which it was necessary to create a competent commission. Grigol Orbeliani, Ilia Chavchavadze, Akaki Tsereteli, Vakhtang Orbeliani, Giorgi Tsereteli, Sergey Meskhi, Nik. T. Dadiani, Davit Giorgis dze Eristavi, Bishop Gabriel Kikodze of Imereti and others. This hard and time-consuming work was to be completed after 25 meetings. As a result of one year's work, the commission determined the text to be published. 

According to the news article published in “Droeba”, it was revealed that Rafiel Eristavi, Iakob Gogebashvili and Iona Meunargia took the initiative to compose the text of "Vefkhistkaosani"; Ilia Chavchavadze was not the initiator of this case, as was previously believed. Rafiel Eristavi was actively involved in the work of the commission for determining the text of "The Man in the Panter’s Skin", he was the chairman of several sessions, a reader of the text and a participant in determining the text. The commission had a book of Rustveli's poems belonging to him along with other manuscripts. Also, Rafiel Eristavi participated in creating live images for the illustrations of "The Man in the Panter’s Skin". He also read a public report about Shota Rustveli and his poem in the building of Artsruni Theater, expressed his opinions about the nature of the characters of "The Man in the Panter’s Skin", which indicates his attitude and love for Shota Rustveli's poem. 

 

Keywords: "Vefkhistkaosani", Kartvelishvili edition, Raphiel Eristavi.