Big news! Wonderful news! The well-known Georgian businessman and prolific benefactor Bidzina Ivanishvili, currently serving as the honorary chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, has obtained at Christie’s in London a manuscript (in Georgian and Aramaic languages), by John Zosimus (Ioane-Zosime), dating back to 979 AD.
To auction the book off, it was evaluated between one and one-an-a-half million pounds sterling, and was factually acquired for 1,250,000 quid. The aged palimpsest is going to be donated to the Georgian National Museum, a scientific-educational institution that preserves and exhibits a unique collection of natural and human history.
The highly-valuable edition of more than one millennium of age is 200×150 millimeters in size and contains 70 pages. The book was written and its binding was completed on Mount Sinai, where it was preserved until it found its place in a private collection.
The 10th century Georgian master of many trades had spent almost his entire life out of Sakartvelo, being active first in Palestine and later on Mount Sinai in Egypt. Most interestingly and importantly, Father John Zosimus happens to be the author of the unique hymn, ‘Praise and Exaltation of the Georgian Language’.
John Zosimus defines Kartuli (Georgian), which is his native tongue, as a mysterious and impenetrable linguistic phenomenon, esoteric, if you wish, having performed the comparative analysis between Georgian and Greek languages, the latter having been the official language of the Byzantine Empire. Moreover, the scholar claims that the Georgian language will have an extremely special, even a consecrated role, as the tongue to be used when Judgment Day arrives.
Four copies of that manuscript were preserved – three on Mount Sinai and one at the National Library in St. Petersburg of Russia, none in Georgia, which is thought by many as an unfortunate fact. With the recently auctioned and momentarily secured manuscript, Georgia has finally got hold of one of the manuscripts among numerous hymnal collations and chronologic treatises by the Georgian expatriate monk Ioane-Zosime, whose most creative period of life dates between 949 and 987 after Christ. He was mostly into bookbinding, copying and collecting valuable writings, which provided for preserving the carefully treasured Georgian manuscripts.
The return of John Zosimus’s manuscript to Georgia is a cultural event of a huge magnitude. The Georgian historian Giorgi Kalandia, who works as the general director of the Tbilisi Art Palace, emphasized that he could hardly imagine a national-level effort comparable to this one; nothing like this has happened lately in the life of our nation; the inimitable Ioane-Zosime is coming back to Sakartvelo.
“My felicitations go to the entire Georgian nation. I congratulate our blessed ancestors and our wonderful future generation. My praise and admiration for the patriotic valiance that has brought this masterpiece to Georgia goes to our long-suffering motherland!” Kalandia noted. “Our first president Zviad Gamsakhurdia would have been the happiest man in the world had he lived long enough to witness the fact, because it was he who properly decrypted the ingenious words by Ioane-Zosime, describing the spiritual mission of the Georgian people.”
A good number of comments appeared in the press and social media as a reaction to this outstanding incident. The delight is sincere, and national exaltation is understandable too. It is so good that something comes round that lets us feel proud for our nation. The speaker of the Georgian parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, made an emotional comment that also deserves attention. As he noted, giving residence in Georgia to the manuscript by Ioane-Zosime is one of the most invaluable acts on the list of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s truly patriotic charitable efforts. The fact of placing the manuscript in the Georgian national treasury will remain as an outstanding cultural episode in this country’s history. Georgia, as a part of the ancient Christian civilization, has every reason to be proud of its spiritual scholarity, John Zosimus being one of the most brilliant figures within that spirituality. Congratulations, Sakartvelo! And many, many more!
Blog by Nugzar B. Ruhadze
