Domsa Károlyné, Fekete Gézáné, Kovács Mária (szerk.): Gondolatok a könyvtárban / Thoughts in the Library (A MTAK közleményei 30. Budapest, 1992)

KÖNYVTÁR ÉS HAGYOMÁNY – LIBRARY AND TRADITION

G. Strempel way the Turks did. That is why, their king decided to make up an alphabet himself and several texts using it; these texts I received in Amsterdam. But, they were not to my liking and I adorned the type letters and that made them very happy..." Therefore, prior to Mihail Stefanovici had come to Georgia, we know that the Georgians had the fundamental typographic type setting, i.e. the letter. This assertion could be doubtful unless we consider a document recently discovered among the funds of the Library of the Romanian Academy namely a letter from Nicolae Mavrocordat (the future Prince of Wallachia, who quickened the untimely tragic end of Antim Ivireanul) to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Hrisant Notaras, on October 1st, 1707. In this letter (mark DLXXI-117) Nicolae Mavrocordat expresses his satisfaction that the Patriarch of Jerusalem had sent a typographer to Iviria to meet the needs of the people there. No further details are given such as the name of the typographer, his birth place. Nevertheless, taking into account that after 1706, Mihail Stefanovici's life is no longer linked to Antim's, no further reference of his new printings being made, we may conclude that he was the typographer Nicolae Mavrocordat was writing about in his letter to Hrisant. Therefore, Mihail Stefanovici left for Georgia before October 1st, 1707 not in 1708 after Antim was elected Arch-Bishop. This would be the only explanation for his printing in 1709 of his first book in Georgia. Together with his companions he needed time enough to leam the unusual Georgian writing, to assemble their machines or to operate the machines that had been brought with the type letter from Amsterdam. This might justify the opinions of certain experts in the history of printing that claim the Psalter had been printed in Tbilisi, in 1701 on a machine ordered to Totfalusi. Actually, these experts are not Georgians since Georgian experts consider Mihail Stefanovici as their first typographer. Anyway, it is certain that in 1709 was printed a magnificent Gospel Book, 313 pages, from which only two copies are left, namely those given by Antim Ivireanulto Prince Constantin Brincoveanu as a birthday present, on May 21 st, the same year, each bearing a dedication written by the great Arch-Bishop. The title page mentions the name of a monk, Nicolae, son of Orbeli, followed by: "the typographer was Mihail, son of Stefan, Wallachian". A local monk helped the typographers to type setting since the latter did not know their language. Reverse of title page, in a short foreword of King Vahtang, he says: "... I brought a typographer from Wallachia and I set up a typography to the memory eternal of the souls of the honoured kings, to the memory eternal of my father and mother [...] and to teach my son and daughters". Finally, on page 5, we find Mihail Stefanovici addressing the reader. We give hereunder a short paragraph: "By God's help I set up a typography in Your country. Bless You, the enlighted Lord of Georgia, the Prince and Master Vahtang. To You, inhabitants of Georgia, fearful of God and full of goodwill, I say: Now I have 100 Thoughts in the library "