With the project — «Scientific research, cataloging and digitalization of Gelati Monastery archive (1811-1923)» (FR-21- 1193) — works to be performed and performers:
To choose “Scientific research, cataloguing and digitalization of Gelati Monastery archive (1811-1923)” as a topic of the grant project was not a random selection on behalf of the participants, especially if we take in to account the incredible and long-lasting contribution that Gelati Monastery and Academy made to the world civilization in fields of culture and religion .
Gelati monastery itself was a religious center first of entire Georgia and then of west Georgia during centuries. It was regarded as a repository of works of Georgian culture and art.
In XIX century Georgia was occupied by tsarist Russia and well-being of Gelati Monastery was ruined by Russian-colonization policy. It was a miracle that Georgian church left without autocephaly and the patriarch still managed to keep its nationality and identity. P. Uvarova, a chairman of Imperial Moscow Archaeological Society, requested to move the Georgian treasure to Russia for the purpose of its protection. But as a result of great resistance of Georgian priests towards this initiative the treasure of Gelati monastery, which was depicted in detail by P. Uvarova, stayed in Georgia. This fact hastenedto start the scientific study of Gelati Monastery and the cultural heritage preserved in the monastery from the second half of the XIX century.
Georgian and foreign scientists were interested in Gelati materials of XII-XIX centuries even before they were moved to the museum in Kutaisi in 1923. This is proved by the works and fundamental studies of suchwell-known scientists as follows: M. Brose, D. Bakradze, N. Kondakov, T. Jordania, G. Tsereteli, P.Uvarova, E.Takaishvili, M. Janashvili, S. Kakabadze,K. Kekelidze, P. Ingorokva,V Beridze, S. Makalatia and others. However a fundamental research of any period of the history of Gelati Monastery (XII-XX c.) has never been done till today.
The present grant project gives an opportunity to rectify the situation. The object of the research is Gelati Monastery archive, which includes 3606 documents and covers the period 1811-1923,gives the opportunity to look through both the history of Gelati Monastery monastic life and history of that time Georgia. This period combines the following four episodes of Georgia political life: the exarchate age -1811-1917, the restoration of autocephaly in 1917 and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Georgia on 26 May 1918, which lasted only 3 years till 25 February 1921, when Bolshevik Russia annexed Georgia. There were several objective reasons of why these issues were not studied by Georgian scientists: The Soviet dictatorship was raging in the country. Almost all state issues were resolved with the intervention of the Russian Federation, and who would dare to present a real picture of the damage caused to Georgia by the Russian Empire at such a time. Only in the last 30 years, when Georgia became truly independent and chose the European path of development, there appeared an opportunity for a scientific study of the history of Georgia and the Georgian Church, a period of interest to us. The archive of Gelati Monastery (1811-1923), kept in the Kutaisi Museum, which can shed light on the history of Georgia and the Georgian Church during the period of our research, has not yet been studied and introduced into scientific circulation. The project envisages scientific research, cataloging and digitization of documents stored in the archives of Gelati Monastery (3606 copies). The monograph «Gelati Monastery in 1811-1923» will be prepared, which will lay the foundation for a step-by-step study of not only the history of Gelati Monastery, as an important monastic and cultural center, but also the history of the Georgian Church in general. This will not be a narrowly specific result of studying the history of only one specific region, in this case Western Georgia or only Gelati Monastery. By implementing this project, we will make a significant contribution to the scientific study of the tragic years of the history of the country — Georgia as a whole.
The project provides for the compilation of an alphabetical search catalog of persons and place names based on 3606 documents stored in the archives of the Gelati Monastery. With this we will revive the names of important ecclesiastical or secular persons lost in historical twists and turns, forgotten today, and offer important toponymic materials to researchers interested in the toponymy of the region.
The actual and enviable business is the restoration and conservation of damaged documents stored in the Gelati archive.
The project also provides for the digitization of 3606 documents stored in the Gelati Archives.
We considered it relevant to compile a list of treasures stored in Gelati during the exarchate period 1811-1917. — in the form of old handwritten books and icons. We catalog these materials whenever possible. For this, an art critic — a young scientist — participates in the project.
From the point of view of the issues covered by the project, It is interdisciplinary and the successful solution of these issues involves the participation of specialists in historical, philological, technical, artistic and digital technologies in the project.
The results of the project will be available on the Internet for those who are interested in the history of Gelati and Georgia in general, anywhere in the world — bilingual (Georgian — English) information on the progress of the project and intermediate results will be periodically uploaded to the project website. After the completion of the project, an electronic version of the final result of the project will be posted on the site — a bilingual chronological catalog of the Gelati Monastery archive (1811-1923) with extensive research and digitized materials.
6 main and 3 auxiliary personnel are considered as project implementers, whose competence fully corresponds to the grant project.
In the first period, the main performers of the project will search for archival materials, periodicals, publications necessary for the research of the research issues in Georgian archives and libraries, and based on their analytical analysis, they will create a bibliography of special literature related to the research issues.
In period I — III, the scientific cataloging of the research object of the project — the archive of Gelati Monastery (3606 documents) will be carried out, which means working on the archival documents of Gelati Monastery using descriptive, paleographic and statistical methods. Namely: the codicological study of the document to determine the type, number, content, date and place of issue of the document. As far as possible, date undated documents…
In the III period, scientific descriptions of documents will be assembled according to the chronological principle and the version of the catalog will be created (responsible for execution — M. Kezevadze, Ts. Mumladze, N. Ugrekhelidze, N. Sarava — young scientist).
From I to III period, a personal and geographical catalog will be compiled in the archive of the Gelati Monastery, which means collecting the names of the people and geographical names mentioned in them from the 4500 documents kept in the archive and compiling an alphabetical catalog of them in the form of an electronic version (responsible for execution — E.Kelauradze, N.Kukhianidze).
From the II period, the work on the monograph — «Gelati Monastery in 1811-1923» will be started, which will combine several researches, namely: «Gelati Monastery management-board in 1811-1923»; «Gelati Monastic Complex in 1811-1923»; «Necropolis of Gelati Monastery» and «Treasures of Gelati Monastery in 1811-1923» (responsible for execution — M.Kezevadze, Ts.Mumladze, N.Sarava).
Articles will be prepared, which will be printed in internationally cited publications (responsible for execution — Ts. Mumladze).
An exhibition will be organized on the topic — «Gelati manuscripts (XII-XIX centuries); (Responsible for performance — Ts. Mumladze, E. Kelauradze, N. Kukhianidze, N. Sarava, V. Nizharadze).
A scientific conference will be held on the topic — «Gelati Monastery during the Exarchate period (1811-1917)» (responsible for execution — M. Kezevadze, Ts. Mumladze);
In the III period, the final result of the grant — «Gelati Monastery Archive Catalog (1811-1923)» — will be prepared and published in the Georgian-English language (responsible for implementation: M.Kezevadze, Ts.Mumladze).
In the I-III period, damaged documents will be selected by the restorer and their restoration-conservation will take place (responsible for execution: V. Nizharadze).
In the period I-III, 3606 documents of the archive will be digitized.
The published catalog will present:
Monograph — «Gelati Monastery in 1811-1923» (Responsible — M. Kezevadze);
Description of 3606 documents of Gelati Monastery archive (responsible — Ts. Mumladze);
Alphabetical catalog of persons and geography compiled on the documents of Gelati monastery archive (responsible for execution — E.Kelauradze, N.Kukhianidze).
The successful solution of the scientific and technical works envisaged by the grant project is ensured by 3 support staff: restorer-conservator, digitizer, programmer…
____________________
___________________________
___________________________
___________________________
___________________________
___________________________