კოლოფონი, როგორც ოთხთავის პარატექსტი და მისი რედაქციები ძველი ქართული ხელნაწერების მიხედვით

Abstract

Similarly to a printed book, a handwritten book, along with the main text (an author’s text) may include a quite well-formed system of paratexts (peritexts and epitexts). Its elements may vary by epoch, culture or genre and may change from an edition to an edition. The manuscripts containing the biblical texts are outstanding in this respect. In the process of their spread (including translation into other languages), a whole system of accompanying texts gradually emerges to facilitate reading and comprehension of texts. The system is more or less changeable over time (types of texts, reviews/redactions) and space (versions/translations into other languages). In codicology, a paratext refers to all the texts that accompany the main text, including the subscriptions that are presented at the end of each Gospel of the Four Gospels, the information about an author of the Gospel, the structure and the purpose of a text. These peritexts, which are functionally colophons, are gradually filled with new information. If in the beginning there is only the information about an author of the Gospel and a date of writing, afterwards, details about the writing (in which language and at whose initiative it was written), some statistical data (how many sections and lines are in each Gospel) and an indication of a liturgical purpose are added. The manuscripts of the Old Georgian translation of the Four Gospels reflect all the stages of the above-mentioned change. The paper studies the manuscripts containing different redactions of the Old Georgian translations of the Four Gospels, discuss the above-mentioned type of a paratext and makes an attempt to show the existing situation via discussing the following questions: Do the different redactional manuscripts, that contain different texts of the Gospel, from the point of redaction, diff er in accordance to the colophons of pre-Athonite and post- Athonite periods? Is the process of editing of the text (mainly “making like Greek”) related to the change of the structure of the collection and similarisation to “the Greek rule”?