Georgian Astrological CHAPTER 7 Texts Saet’lo da Samtvario (H-503)

Manuscript H-503, dated 1808, is an anthology of short texts, both astrological and religious in nature. It is notable for the inclusion of three different lunaria (folios 1r-23r, 59r-92r, 92r-94r).

Physical Description of ms H-503

The catalogue of the National Centre of Manuscripts designates this manu- script as Saet’lo da samtvario [Zodiologium and lunarium], and describes it as 96 pages; 10 × 7.5 centimeters; blue paper; leather-bound wood covers (lower cover lost); pages missing from beginning and end (other pages missing here and there); mxedruli [military] script (written in various hands); illustrated (23v, 56v, 57v, 58r, 94v); year 1808 (56r); copyist (of one portion): Moses, son of Ant’on Q’ulič’anat (57r).1 The leather-bound cover mentioned in the catalogue had been replaced by a simple blue library binding at the time I examined this manuscript (2009). The manuscript is written in black ink, with various rubrics and emphases in red ink. Although the unusually small size of the book and the uniformity of its blue paper pages suggests that it was assembled at one time, it is clearly a collection of miscellaneous texts drawn from various sources.

Language of ms H-503

Despite its late date, the language of the manuscript is decidedly archaic, including much obsolete vocabulary, for example ese [he; this (49v, 50r, 51r, 51v, 56r]2, k’icu [colt (85r)]3, zamotari [winter; mod. zamtari (42r)]; ergative ending –man; postposition –tana; plural oblique ending –ta / -t; and many

1 Ilia Abuladze, Elene Metreveli, and K’. Sarasidze, eds., Sakartvelos Saxelmcipo Muzeumis Kartul Xelnac’erta Ağc’eriloba: Axali (Q) K’olekciisa (Tbilisi: Mecniereba, 1957), 1:263. 2 Donald Rayfield, A Comprehensive Georgian-English Dictionary (London: Garnett Press, 2006) identifies this as an Old Georgian form. 3 Rayfield, A Comprehensive Georgian-English Dictionary identifies this as an Old Georgian form.

© Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2021 | doi:10.30965/9783657705160_009 182 Georgian Astrological Texts other examples. The consistent use of long-form endings (gen. -isa, instr. -ita, dat./acc. -sa) may suggest an origin in Eastern Georgia (Kartli, K’akheti).4 However, many of the forms used in ms H-503 are identified by Rayfield’s Comprehensive Georgian-English Dictionary (2006) as pertaining to the western dialects of Georgian. These include the Gurian dialect forms čaič’rebis, čaič’ras [have bad luck (28v, 30v, 32v, 45r], šorieli [distant (41r)], and zroxa [cow (45r)], as well as eputi [ephod (several dozen occurrences)], which Rayfield identifies as Imeretian / Gurian. Spelling is highly irregular and variable throughout; it appears to be based more on the sound of the spoken language rather than upon written conventions.

Provenance and Authorship of ms H-503

Based on all of these observations, it appears likely that manuscript H-503 emanated from Western Georgia (the kingdom of Imereti, centered around Kutaisi; or the principalities of Mingrelia or Guria). This raises the possibil- ity of Western influence, since the Western part of Georgia was the sphere of Roman Catholic missionary activity by the Theatines from 1627. It is possible that parts of this manuscript were translated or adapted from Western (or pos- sibly Russian) sources. Clear parallels between the manuscript’s two lunaria and Western examples lend support to this idea. Manuscript H-503 includes 185 pages of text, comprising exactly 2012 lines and about 6050 words (approximate owing to ambiguities of word-division). This yields an average of 3.0 words per line, 10.8 lines per page, and 32.4 words per page. The manuscript was the work of a number of different copyists, who for convenience may be designated as Copyists A, B, C, D, E, and F. The handwriting of Copyist A is rather large and sloppy, and is character- ized by curved tails and flourishes above and below the line. This copyist is responsible for the first samtvario (1r-23r) and much of the zodiologium (24r- 40r), a total of 972 lines (2763 words; 2.84 words per line, 12.5 lines per page), amounting to 45.7% of the manuscript. Copyist B exhibits a smaller, clearer hand, and his contribution is limited to two pages of the zodiologium (40v-41r), amounting to just 11 lines. Copyist C writes in a much larger hand, with three dots inserted after each word. This copyist is responsible for the concluding

4 “die langen Formen sind eher charakteristisch für die ostgeorgischen Dialekte, die kurzen eher für die westgeorgischen.” (Keta Tschenkéli, Einführung in die Georgische Sprache, 1958, I:3).