The Catalogue brings together information about Georgian manuscripts now held in libraries and museums of Georgia and created between the 10th and 18th centuries, and which were copied and kept abroad in the monastic centres of the Christian Orient and Byzantium: Palestine, Bithynia, Mount Athos, Constantinople, the Antioch region and the Balkans.
The Catalogue contains photographs of one or two pages of the manuscripts copied abroad, accompanied by brief codicological and palaeographical information, and commentaries and notes concerning the provenance, the places in which the manuscripts were created, benefactors, scribes and book-binders. The preface attempts to answer questions concerning the adventures of the manuscripts and the paths they took before reaching the libraries and museums of the Georgian institutions.
The publication of the Catalogue will facilitate both Georgian and foreign scholars in their researches on issues relating to manuscript production in monastic centres of Christendom. The Catalogue will enable the reader to have a better understanding of the literary activities of medieval Georgian scholars, as well as to feel and appreciate the charm of the ancient manuscripts and their journeys.
