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

Romanian typography for Georgia the type letter and other requisites for a typography. All in good number. The responsible and Master of the typography is myself, Your servant. First and foremost I printed the holy book, the Gospel. I most humbly ask everyone, old and young, to spare me, should one find mistaken typed letters and words. For I was a stranger in this land and a stranger to Your language. My apprentices had no such knowledge all the same. Neither myself nor my people ever saw Georgia before... On behalf of the humble typographer, Your servant, that works with passionate heart, Mihail, son of Stefan, Wallachian". From the artistic point of view, the engraved title page is to be noticed with its inset portraits of Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ and St. John the Baptist, their names being written in Georgian alphabet as well as the wooden etching of the evangelists. Most likely these engravings should have been made by Antim, due to similar workmanship of Romanian books. At the end of the book we find the portrait of King Vahtang, seated, whose authorship is hardly possible to be traced. A year later, Mihail Stefanovici's second book is printed, a Missal, that was lost. The book is described in the Old Romanian Bibliography on the basis of foreign sources. The epilogue signed by Mihail Stefanovici reads towards the end: "... Since the spiritual fathers of the Georgians hath few consecrated books and the people are prevented to fulfil their duty because they have no such books, the Master and Governor of Georgia, Prince Vahtang, endowed with the feeling and understanding for this need of the priests, took good care as he did before for other books printed in Your Georgian tongue and asked us to print this book as well. [...] Yours adopted son, the Wallachian typographer, Mihail Stefanovici. Printed in Tiflis by the hand of the typographer Mihail Stefanovici, Wallachian, in the year 1710." There follow six verses in Romanian but printed in Georgian type, similar to those we usually find in our ancient literature, at the end of the manuscript copied by hand, verses adapted by our typographer to his trade: "Like strangers eager to see their land While in alien countries find no peace; Like those betrodden by the wild sea winds Begging God to ease their toils, So are typographers striving to finish the book to offer neverending praise and comfort." We hardly know anything else about Mihail Stefanovici's activity in Georgia. Some scholars claim that beside the two books mentioned in the Old Romanian Bibliography, he would have also printed seven other volumes, namely: 1709: A Psalm Book and Book of the Apostles', 1710: A Breviary (2 editions and different type letters), A Prayer Book and the first part of a Bible; 1711: A Psalm Book Gondolatok a könyvtárban " 101