შუა საუკუნეების ქართული „სანიმუშო“ დედნების, ე. წ. ავტორიტეტული ხელნაწერების ძიებაში

Abstract

For medieval scribes involved in the production and dissemination of manuscripts, one of the main challenges was the selection of a reliable original for copying. Of particular value were socalled authoritative exemplars of medieval works, recognized as the best, most reliable originals – models, because they contained the very exact form of the text which, in the view of competent persons or institutions, required further reproduction and dissemination. In the colophons of Georgian manuscripts, there are direct references to the existence of authoritative manuscripts, as well as a special term that refers to this type of manuscript. This is nuskha (ნუსხა), which in ancient Georgian written sources has two meanings: (a) an autograph manuscript, and (b) an authoritative manuscript. (a) The term nuskha in the sense of an autograph – an exemplar written by author or translator himself – is especially common in colophons of Athonite manuscripts, including translations of Euthymius and George the Hagiorites, and Theophilus the Hieromonk. Today, the collection of Georgian manuscripts of the Iviron monastery contains several manuscripts, which are considered to be George the Hagiorite’s and Theophilus the Hieromonk’s autographs. In the colophons of these manuscripts, both Georgian scholars use this term when talking about manuscripts either copied or written by them. (b) The lexical unit nuskha as an authoritative manuscript is confirmed in the manuscript of the famous Vani Gospel (NCM A-1335, 12th c.). It contains George the Hagiorite’s version of the Gospel. The scribe of the manuscript states that the manuscript of the Gospel of George the Hagiorite was placed as a model (ნუსხად მდებარე იყო) in the book storage of Iviron. The colophon, which is attached to the Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew by John Chrysostom translated by Euthymius the Hagiorite (Ivir. iber. 10), states that this work was completed by Euthymius as a model (nuskha) on Mt Athos. Evidently, these autographs of Euthymius and George the Hagiorites were recognized as authoritative manuscripts – reliable models for further copying and dissemination. Obviously, we do not consider all autographs of Georgian translators as authoritative manuscripts, most of them are common exemplars, but in our opinion, two of them – George the Hagiorite’s autograph of Parakletike (Ivir. georg. 45) and Theophilus’ autograph of the Metaphrastic Collection of September (Ivir. georg. 20) were recognized as authoritative exemplars by Georgian scribes and scholars. In the introductions and colophons of these exemplars George and Theophilus presented instructions to be followed by future scribes. Thus, copying and dissemination of Georgian manuscripts was a well-thought-out, organized process, regulated by the rules established in the field of manuscript production in Byzantium and the Christian East.