Writing, just like laughter, is a privilege of a human being and, as writing says, being human is also a privilege.

Georgia is the country of ancient culture and historical past. It has made a valuable contribution to the development of the world culture and civilization. The witness of it is great many relics and monuments that have survived not only in Georgia, but abroad as well, and the best proof of it is, that one of the existing 14 alphabets in the world is Georgian.

Georgian script is of three kinds: Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli.

The three alphabets in Georgia were used for three different writing styles. Interestingly, the scripts created sequentially one after the other were used simultaneously throughout the centuries: Nuskhuri for ecclesiastic literature and Mkhedruli for the secular one. The oldest alphabet – Asomtavruli has reached our days not only in books, but in stone.

In all, about 10.000 Georgian manuscripts have been preserved both in Georgia and abroad. The earliest manuscript is kept at Mount Sinai. This is where the famous "Praise" (of the Georgian language) comes from:

"The Georgian language has been buried until doomsday when the messiah comes to commit martyrdom".

Churches and monasteries were the places where the work on Georgian manuscripts was carried out, as the copyists were, most frequently, monks. Maybe this explains the religious content of the majority of the manuscripts, though not all are religious. However, some manuscripts were written about medicine, astronomy and manuals of chemistry and physics were also created.

The manuscripts were written, but the question is: On what and with what were they written?

"Initially, the skin of sheep and calves were used as a material for writing. That was expensive, however. One skin cost around 200 drahkans. Very often one herd was not even enough to write one book. This gave rise to special abbreviations. Often the same writing material was used more than once. On some manuscripts, one can clearly see the earlier writings under the medieval texts.

In addition, the ink formula remains unexplained to this day. The golden ink was made of gold powder mixed in a certain solution, but precisely what solution, still remains unknown". (Mikheil Kavtaria, scholar)

It often took several months to rewrite a book. Long months were spent in a monk’s cell, copying one manuscript on a sheep’s skin.  Even the Golden Fleece might have been the sheep’s skin with inscriptions on it. Indeed, the number of the manuscripts would have been far more numerous if not for the endless offensives and attacks of enemies and a great number of churches and monasteries that were burnt to the ground.

"We’ve had too few educated foes, whereas the illiterate ones were abundant" (Mikheil Kavtaria).

Apparently, that is why the manuscripts were not only destroyed, but were also even kept captive like people in order to demand a big ransom for them thereafter.
The enemy was obviously indifferent, but for the copyists these books became so close and dear to their hearts that frequently they would not merely rewrite the manuscripts…

The scholars studying the "Knight in the Panther’s Skin" found it rather difficult to identify the Rustavelian version of the poem because many copyists have modified the folios of the famous poem at their own discretion.

All this requires further research, and the story is not over yet.

Every generation always discovers something new in the Georgian manuscripts and the Georgian script itself and interprets them differently.

"Today, I still suspect what all great scholars intuitively felt that the Mkhedruli alphabet is an encoded script which was created to conceal some sort of information. This information could have been of military, state, intellectual or religious nature." (Emir Burjanadze, Head of the Script Scientific-Research Laboratory at Tbilisi Art Academy)

"The Georgian Asomtavruli alphabet is the result of the perception of the universe. This alphabet was created thousands of years ago and many wise men worked on it. This alphabet is associated with the calendar, mathematics and involves many symbols and signs"(Emir Burjanadze).

 Nodar Khvedelidze, the senior specialist of the Script Scientific-Research Laboratory at Tbilisi Art Academy, discovered six letter-signs in the Georgian Asomtavruli alphabet. If these six signs were reversed, another set of six letter-signs would be obtained. N.Khvedelidze arranged these pairs along the astrological circle and at the very intersection where an imaginary axis of the earth lies, the word "sky" appeared. The axis itself happened to lie in the direction of the planet Jupiter.

"There can be no other explanation here. Everything fits so well that this is the only   logical reason "(Emir Burjanadze).

The Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and, of course, Mkhedruli are used in Georgia until now. But they say they can write better using Mkhedruli.

"The Georgian alphabet suffers from a lack of fonts. We have very few fonts and this is reflected in all the books, magazines and newspapers… For instance, "The Times" magazine is printed using its own fonts. The same could also be done in Georgia, provided that this branch of science is developed. At this point in time, however, even elementary literature on fonts does not exist. Only one book has been published. Adapting Georgian letters to the computer is also a rather difficult thing." (Sopo Kintsurashvili, Vice President of the Graphical Design Association)

"Modern times have created numerous specific branches requiring advertising and information. All these have brought about stylization of script. We are, therefore, working on the proportions of the Georgian script and fonts, its aesthetic shapes that will be available for  generations to come" (Emir Burjanadze).

They say that good handwriting is an indicator of a good character. Certainly, not everybody could work on the manuscripts but only those who were good calligraphers and could draw and shape the Georgian letters exactly in the way they were originally created.

"The Georgian alphabet is round-shaped in its entirety, just like the universe (Emir Burjanadze).

Georgian manuscripts – the wisdom of the centuries, the wholesomeness and spiritual experience of the nation… collected and woven together, like the universe…
From times immemorial, the greatest treasure and mystery is passed on from hand to hand with immense care. Today, in this fantastic century of computers and design, the children of this millennium approach this mystery with care and conscientiousness. Today, like centuries ago, they sit under the candlelight working on the ancient manuscripts and copying them with the inspiration instilled by their grandfathers. They adorn the manuscripts with refined and subtle decoration, traditional and uncustomary drawings and miniatures. This is done by both the clergy and laymen at churches and monasteries and in the ordinary apartments of multi-storied buildings.

There are, for instance, several Gospels rewritten and decorated by Irakli Parjiani.

The inimitable Rusudan Petviashvili puts her soul in a new manuscript of the Bible.

"ai ia" (Here is a violet) – a young Georgian writes his first letters carefully and this is how he is initiated into a great mystery, so calmly and unnoticeably, so simply and naturally…

TEA TOPURIA