The Italian Connection (2009)

                         The Italian Connection: Evidence of the Collaboration

                       of Italian Speakers in the Preparation of Several Manuscripts

          from the Era of Vakht’ang VI 

                       

     Timothy P. Grove, Biola University

                                               

                                 K. Kekelidze Scientific Seminar Series

          National Centre of Manuscripts

 Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia

  15 July 2009

[slide 1]

The Italian Connection: Evidence of the Collaboration of Italian speakers in the Preparation of several manuscripts from the era of Vakht’ang VI

[slide 2]

Timothy P. Grove
Biola University, La Mirada, California

My academic interests include

• Astrology

• Italian Literature

• Neo-Latin Literature

• Georgian Astrological Manuscripts

[slide 3]

My research here has focused primarily on two manuscripts:

• Q-867 (“Saet’lo Xiromant’ia”)

• Q-884 (a short introduction to astronomy attributed to Vakht’ang VI)

[slide 4]

Georgian Use of an Italian Text

• Q-867 (“Saet’lo Xiromant’ia”) refers to a philosopher named “otaviobeltrano” (13v) and “beltrano” (30r)

[slide 5]

• In fact, several sections of this manuscript, including many of the illustrations, are drawn directly from the Almanacco Perpetuo of Ottavio Beltrano, first published at Naples in 1639. 

• These include chapter 13 (31r-36r, on eclipses), the horoscope for 21 June 1635 (58v-59r), and all of chapter 20 (60v-74v, the perpetual almanac, with its 28 illustrations).

[slide 6]

Eclipses (Q-867) [illustration omitted]

[slide 7]

Eclipses (Almanacco Perpetuo, p. 61) [illustration omitted]

[slide 8]

Venus and Saturn (pictures and text, Q-867, 69v-70r) [illustration omitted]

[slide 9]

Venus (picture and text, Almanacco Perpetuo, p. 164) [illustration omitted]

[slide 10]

Saturn (picture and text, Almanacco Perpetuo, p. 165) [illustration omitted]

[slide 11]

• Ottavio Beltrano (fl. 1620-1660) was a printer and miscellaneous writer active in and around Naples.  His Almanacco Perpetuo was extremely popular and went through numerous editions.  It continued to be printed even into the 19^th century!

[slide 12]

This text was also widely distributed in Georgia

Several other manuscripts either copy it or incorporate parts of it.  These include:

• H-1658 (possibly from the late 17^th century; this may actually be the original from which Q-867 was adapted, as the language is more archaic).

[slide 13]

• K-598 (a manuscript at Kutaisi, dated 1768 and probably written by Georgian exiles in Russia; I learned of this manuscript from Tamara Abuladze).

• H-1235 (dated 1817)

[slide 14]

• H-94 (19^th century; an exact copy of the first half of the book—perhaps the second half was lost or bound separately?)

• A-889 (19^th century; incorporates much of the same material).

[slide 15]

The first chapter of the text refers to a phiklosopher named “ariaga.”  This was Rodrigo de Arriaga, a Spanish Jesuit whose Cursus Philosophicus was first published at Antwerp in 1632.  Several other writers from Western Europe are also mentioned in the text.  It appears likely that an Italian visitor to Georgia brought several books with him which were used and adapted by Georgian scholars.

[slide 16]

Collaboration of Italian Speakers

• The cosmogram on 36v is captioned as follows:

Chelum emp’ireum romel ars samotxe

*The Latin word coelum (or caelum, “heaven”) is pronounced as “chelum” only by Italian speakers!

[slide 17]

Chelum emp’ireum romel ars samotxe [illustration and close-up from K-598 omitted]

[slide 18]

• The astrological table on 46v is labeled with the letters ani, bani, chini, doni. 

• This corresponds to a diagram in Beltrano’s Almanacco Perpetuo which is labeled A, B, C, D. 

• Again, the letter C is pronounced as “ch” only by Italian speakers.

[slide 19]

Chart of astrological aspects (Almanacco Perpetuo, p. 139) [illustration omitted]

[slide 20]

Chart of astrological aspects (Q-867, 46v) [illustration omitted[]

[slide 21]

Q-884 is a short introduction to astronomy compiled by Vakht’ang VI

The text contains numerous references to the “Latins” (lat’inni), along with Georgian transliterations of Italian terms.

[slide 22]

Italian terms transliterated by Vakht’ang VI:

GEORGIAN                                    ITALIAN

• chel  dijove                                    celo  di  Giove

• chiel  di  mart’e                        celo  di  Marte

• chielo  disole                        celo  del  Sole

[slide 23]

GEORGIAN                                    ITALIAN

• chiledi  venere                        celo  di  Venere

• chielo  di  merk’vrio            celo di Mercurio

• solost’ici                                    solstizii

[slide 24]

GEORGIAN                                    ITALIAN

• k’olurodele  k’vinoci            coluro degl’equinozii                                               

• oridzonte                                    orizonte

• t’orpik’odi  k’ankro                        tropico di Cancro

[slide 25]

GEORGIAN                                    ITALIAN

• t’ropik’o del inverno            tropico del inverno

• p’oloant  artik’omde            polo antartico

[slide 26]

• The careful transliteration of such terms in their Italian pronunciation clearly points to the input of Italian speakers.

• The word-division in Georgian (different from the Italian word-division) demonstrates that the writer did not himself understand Italian grammar and syntax. His transcriptions of Italian terms were thus based on their sound, not on their appearance in print.

• It thus appears that both Q-884 and Q-867 (with its many variants) were written in collaboration with visitors from Italy, and possibly in the same milieu.