A CULTURAL-HISTORICAL DOCUMENT OF THE ERA (OLIVER WARDDROP'S AND ARTHUR LEIST'S LETTERS TO IVANE MACHABELI)

Abstract

Ivane Machabeli holds an honourable place among other Georgian thinkers of the 19th century. He was versatile: translator, publicist, journalist, founder and secretary of the Society for Spreading Literacy among Georgians, editor of the magazine Iveria and a newspaper Droeba. Machabeli was a member of "The Knight in the Panther's Skin's" text defining commission and editor of the version published by Giorgi Kartvelishvili in 1888.

            Archival manuscripts are significant sources of information for studying Ivane Machabli's biography, literary heritage and public career. They are fundamental for examining Georgian literature, the history of translation, the social-cultural and economic context of the period, and scholarly relations between Georgia and the outer world.

            In 1984, translations of Ivane Machabli's six French letters and Oliver Wardrop's three French letters preserved at the Literature Museum and Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford have already been published in Georgia. 

            Recently, while exploring the archival collections of the Literature Museum, we have uncovered some more pieces of the previously unpublished French correspondence, namely: Oliver Wardrop's two letters addressed to Ivane Machabeli and Arthur Leist's six letters to Ivane Machabeli.

            The epistolary legacy above proves Ivane Machabel's close relationship with Oliver Wardrop and Arthur Leist, which primarily originated from an interest towards Georgian culture. On the other hand, the correspondence shows the English scholar's and the German writer's enthusiasm and attraction towards Georgia. These rediscovered French letters, which give a clear picture of the cultural circumstances of the era, are, therefore, documents of highly significant value.

          Keywords: archival studies, manuscripts, correspondence, Ivane Machabeli, Olver Wardrop, Arthur Leist