იტალიურ-ქართული ბოტანიკური ლექსიკონის XVIII საუკუნის ხელნაწერი

Abstract

The handwritten text of the Italian-Georgian Dictionary (code: S 4742 at the Korneli Kekelidze Georgian National Center of Manuscripts) until now has not been the subject of special attention. According to the paleographic data, it should have been composed at the end of XVIII or the beginning of XIX century. Italian words and their Georgian equivalents are written in different handwriting and different ink. In all likelihood, the compilers of the dictionary were an Italian missionary and a Georgian Catholic. Apparently, the name of the Georgian compiler was Anton, which is indicated at the end of one of the sections of the dictionary. As far as among Georgian equivalents of Italian terms are sometimes found words in the Imeretian dialect, it gives us a reason to conclude that this text, like the “Italian-Georgian-Latin Dictionary” (Korneli Kekelidze Georgian National Center of Manuscripts, code: Q 510) of the same period, was compiled by the priests of Kutaisi Catholic Church. In the history of Georgian lexicography, this manuscript is the first sample of a bilingual botanical dictionary and, as a specialized dictionary, focused upon a specific subject field, precedes Raphael Eristavi’s “Concise Georgian-Russian-Latin Dictionary of Plants, Animals and Metals” (1884). This manuscript of the Italian-Georgian dictionary contains Georgian correspondences for more than seven hundred Italian names of plants, mainly widespread in Georgia or known in local life. Along with this, as an exception, sometimes there are translations of the names of words from the branches of fauna, minerals and precious metals. Since some Georgian equivalents of the Italian names of plants presented in this manuscript are absent in modern Georgian special botanical dictionaries, they can be taken into account when compiling synonyms of the botanical nomenclature. This manuscript of the “Italian-Georgian Dictionary” is one of the original manifestations of the fruitful cooperation of Italian missionaries in Georgia and Georgian Catholic priests and their contribution to the development of Georgian culture.