კვირკველია, ეკა / Kvirkvelia, Eka2025-06-122025-06-122024ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის საქართველოს ისტორიის ინსტიტუტის შრომები, XX, თბილისი, 2024, გვ. 392-394 / Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University Institute of Georgian History Proceedings, XX, Tbilisi, 2024, p. 392-3941987–9970https://dspace.tsu.ge/handle/123456789/2635https://geohistory.humanities.tsu.ge/ge/procedings/83-shromebi/179-shromebi-20.html ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის ჰუმანიტარულ მეცნიერებათა ფაკულტეტის საქართველოს ისტორიის ინსტიტუტის შრომები შესულია ERIH PLUS-ში (The European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences) / This journal was approved on 23.10.2024 according to ERIH PLUS criteria for inclusionThe article examines the history of Georgian palimpsest studies from the 1920s to the present, outlining the methodologies employed at various stages. The beginning of studying palimpsests is attributed to Ivane Javakhishvili, who was the first to use a chemical treatment method to enhance the readability of the lower layer of two manuscripts (NCM A-89 and A-844). He presented a report on the study's results on February 10, 1923, at the Georgian Historical and Ethnographic Society meeting. According to his account, Iovel Kutateladze, acting under his instructions, chemically treated the parchment in such a way that neither the color of the parchment nor the upper layer of writing was affected, while the Asomtavruli letters on the lower layer became noticeably readable. Akaki Shanidze made an invaluable contribution to the scientific study and publication of Georgian palimpsests. Like Ivane Javakhishvili, he applied the same chemical treatment method to examine the khanmeti Lectionary (H1329), presenting his findings on October 23, 1923. In an article published in 1927, Akaki Shanidze reported using the same method again while working on the khanmeti mravaltavi (S-3902). The chemical treatment of palimpsests was not unfamiliar to Europe, as it had been applied since the early 19th century. This method was used on numerous Greek, Latin, Syriac, Armenian, and other manuscripts. However, assessing the extent of damage caused by the chemical experiments conducted by Ivane Javakhishvili and Akaki Shanidze on specific manuscripts is challenging, as their original condition remains unknown. One thing is certain: this method of reading palimpsests was abandoned in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century due to the damage to the manuscripts. Since the 1890s, photography has been used instead to highlight the lower layers of palimpsests. The use of ultraviolet light as a method for reading Georgian palimpsests can be considered the next stage in their study. In the 1960s, at the newly established Institute of Manuscripts in Tbilisi, a systematic cataloguing of palimpsests was initiated under the guidance of Ilia Abuladze. This effort resulted in the documentation of 5,000 items and the creation of an internal-use list. This work, which began in the 20th century, came to its end in 2017 with the publication of the 808-page book Georgian Palimpsests at the National Center of Manuscripts (Catalogue, Texts, Album), Tbilisi, 2017. The introduction to the catalog mentions that ultraviolet lighting was used when working on palimpsests, but no additional details are provided about the device's specifications. It appears that the ultraviolet lighting used in this case was not specifically designed for reading palimpsests but rather had its primary purpose in medicine. While the device significantly aided scientists in making many palimpsest pages more readable, it cannot be considered a technological innovation in palimpsest studies. It is worth noting that, during the Soviet period, the study of Georgian palimpsests preserved in Georgia bypassed the stage of ultraviolet and infrared photography of manuscripts, which was being developed and utilized in Europe at that time. The next stage in the study of Georgian palimpsests is associated with the name of the German Kartvelologist Jost Gippert, who, in 2004, became the first to photograph Cod. Vind. georg. 2, preserved in the Austrian National Library (Vienna), using the Multi-Spectral Imaging System (MuSIS). In 2007, he published a book about the 14 different manuscript fragments preserved in the lower layer. The subsequent step in the study of Georgian palimpsests is connected to the ongoing scientific project “Development of Literacy in the Caucasus Territories (DeLiCaTe),” which is being carried out at the Center for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) of the University of Hamburg under the leadership of Jost Gippert from 2022 to 2027. The project aims to study the development of Georgian, Armenian, and Caucasian Albanian literacy in the first millennium. Within the framework of the project, Georgian manuscripts preserved abroad are being photographed using Multispectral Imaging (MSI), currently regarded as the best practice worldwide for studying palimpsests. We hope that the same practice will soon be shared in Georgia for the study of palimpsests stored at the Korneli Kekelidze Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts.otherArticle