Rusudan Labadze

The biography of Dimitri (“Bazorka”) Giorgi Amilakhvari (1906-1942), the
commander of the 13th Demi-Brigade of the French Foreign Legion, who died in the Battle of El Alamein during the World War II North Africa campaign, contains a number of unspecified facts. In September 2020, the French publishing house (Lemme Edit), which publishes historical literature on famous military and political figures, issued the book “Dimitri Amilakhvari - The Fighting Prince”. It was the first book in France to honor the memory of Lieutenant Colonel Dimitri Amilakhvari. The author of the book cites information about the noble house of Zedginidze-Amilakhvari. According to this information Ivane Amilakhvari (1829-1905), general of the cavalry of the Imperial Russian Army, who distinguished himself in the Russo-Ottoman and Caucasus wars, is named as the ancestor of Dimitri Amilakhvari. Dimitri Amilakhvari is mentioned as Ivane Amilakhvari’s grandson on the website of the French Ministry of Armed Forces.
The issue of Dimitri Amilakhvari’s ancestors has not been specially studied in Georgian research literature. The scholars either do not address this issue at all or refer to him as the grandson of Ivane Amilakhvari. There are also a variety of Internet resources, family tree and genealogy archives which under the influence of multilingual online encyclopedia (mostly the Russian Wikipedia and the English Wikipedia), represents Dimitri Amilakhvari as a descendant of Ivane Amilakhvari, the famous general of the Imperial Russian Army. Finally, the book of the French historian Nicolas Ross “Between Hitler and Stalin: White and Soviet Russians in Europe during World War II”, reprinted in February 2021 in France, in which Dimitri Amilakhvari is considered as the representative of the Russian White Emigration.
In fact, who was Dimitri Amilakhvari’s father – Giorgi son of Ivane Amilakhvari or Giorgi son of Otar Amilakhvari? Is it a coincidence that the name of Ivane (Niko) Amilakhvari is connected with the other branch of the noble house of the Amilakhvari? And what is the significance of establishing this fact?
Through the documentary sources, genealogical lists of the Amilakhvari
family, and information of genealogiy websites in the article is established that the ancestor of Dimitri Amilakhvari was not Ivane Amilakhvari, general of the cavalry of the Imperial Russian Army, but Otar Amilakhvari, descendant of another branch of this princely family.

An apocryphon of the New Testament "Descent of the Virgin into Hell" or "The Wanderings of the Virgin" (in the Greek original "The Apocalypse of the Virgin") survives in a number of Georgian manuscripts. The earliest of them, A-70, dates from the 13th century. There are different opinions in special literature concerning the creation of the Greek text. This apocryphal and eschatological work is well-known in Eastern
Christianity. The Georgian, Greek, Russian, Ethiopic and Armenian texts offer different versions of the apocryphon, evidently, by reason of different historical and confessional environments.
The sufferings of Hell, which the work describes most emotionally and realistically and which obviously accounts for special interest it has received, has been reflected in popular beliefs as well.
The "Wanderings of the Virgin" was not popular in Western Christian literature. Apparently, the image of the Virgin described in the Byzantine apocryphon was not
quite consistent with the type of Madonna established in the West (N. Tikhonravov). The extreme austerity of the apocryphon must have prevented its acceptance in Western Christianity. Thanks to "The Wanderings of the Virgin", the Deesis entered the iconography of the Last Judgement. Supplication of the Holy Virgin to our Saviour for the absolution of sins of every man and salvation of their souls, which is the central motif of the apocryphon, was in harmony with the picture of the Last Judgement and has become its integral part. The relationship between popular and official cultures in the Middle Ages is a matter of controversy. While there is no straightforward answer to whether or not the  intersection of the two cultures is a paradox, it is obvious that they come to terms as concerns the apocryphon. The books that were not tolerated by the Church made an important contribution to the broad dissemination of eschatological ideas.

In the hierarchical structure of medieval Georgia the court etiquette regulated the official rituals of viziers as well as solemn ceremonials. According to the etiquette, the so-called rules of standing and sitting, which were the ceremonial expression of the existing hierarchy, determined the place of honour for the participants of the receptions at the royal court. The medieval Georgian codes of law: “Regulations of the Royal Court", "The Rule and Order of the King's Coronation", “Dasturlamali" contain important and valuable description of the etiquette of the Georgian royal court. All these sources, with the exception of "Dasturlamali", are dateless and it is difficult to find synchronous parallels with other (including European) sources. However, behavior, manner of dress, speech norms (including the meetings of the officials), as well as regulations for receive guests and entertainment at the royal court formulated in these codes of law are almost fully confirmed in various sources (“Life of Kartli”, frescos, miniature painting, etc.). Changes in the official etiquette occurred in the 17th-18th centuries, mainly due to the diminution of the sovereignty of Georgian kingdoms caused by the policy of expansion of Iran and the Ottoman Empire. As for the content of some official positions, it has narrowed, and some positions of the royal court officials have disappeared altogether.
The “Chronica Majora” of the English chronicler Matthew of Paris (13th century) preserves the information concerning the official dinner of King Louis IX of France and King Henry III of England, held in 1254, in Paris. According to the Benedictine monk, many details of the court etiquette are revealed, namely, the layout of the guests at the royal banquet, the place of the women in the Palace hierarchy, the culinary diversity of the festive table, etc.
Concerning the etiquette of the court, the Georgian material is equal to an asymmetrical parallel, since we have been dealing with the process of decentralization from the 15th century, whereas in Europe this happened the other way around.

The topic of paper is the concept of time in the medieval world view according to the Georgian historical and hagiographical sources of the fourth-eleventh centuries.
The hagiogtaphical narrative is emphasized with churh time, which recognize only one calendar – church year, annual cycle in commemoration of the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every minute and second of the astronomical day divided into 24 hours is the prerogative of church. The days are observed as the commemoration of saints and martyrs and are exspressed by their feasts. In liturgy smaller unit of measuring the time is “zhami” (time, hour), universal unit expressing the church time of hagiography as well as historiography’s secular time.
Eschatological time appears to be a significant part of church time. According to the author of “Martyrdom of Abo of Tbilisi” - Ioane Sabanisdze: “We have reached the shortened time, the last hour of our being”. “Shortened time”, seventh period (მეშვიდე დარი) is the end of time (cf. Matthew 24,22) and this eschatological theory belongs to the eighth century author.
Unlike hagiographic literature in the historical narrative of the fourth-eleventh centuries and especially in Kartlis Tskhovreba (The Life of Kartli) the eschatological time is not dominated; Although we can say that in many cases the church time prevails in historiography too. The annual cycle in historiography is formed by twelve months and four seasons; the division of daytime is more secular than religious. As for providentialism, this belief have no alternative in Georgian historical writing of the Middle Ages.


В статье изучен вопрос концепта времени в средневековом мировоззрении на основании грузинских исторических и агиографических источников IV-XI веков.
В агиографическом нарративе превалирует церковное время, которое вводит свой календарь - церковный год, посвященный циклу  жизни, смерти и Воскресения Христа. Каждая минута и секунда деленного на 24 часа астрономического дня в распоряжении церкви. Дни рассматриваются как поминовение святых и мученников воспроизведённые в церковных праздниках, которые повторяются с определенной периодичностью. Малая единица измерения времени в литургии в источниках называется «жами» (время, час), которая является универсальной, выражавшей как Церковное время агиографии, так и мирское – историографии.
Значительной частью церковного времени представляется эсхатологическое время. В «Мученичестве Або Тбилели» агиограф пишет: «Мы переживаем сокращенное время, последний час нашего присутствия». «Сокращенное время» агиографического текста, седьмое тысячелетие (meSvide dari), конец времен (ср. Мф. 24:22) и эта эсхатологическая теория принадлежит автору VIII века, Иоанну Сабанисдзе.
В историческом нарративе IV-XI веков, особенно в «Картлис Цховреба» (Житие Картли), в отличии от агиографической литературы, эсхатологическое время не доминирует. Хотя, можно сказать, что церковное время также возобладает во многих исторических текстах. В историографии годовой цикл состоит из двенадцати месяцев  и четыре сезона; Деление дневного времени более мирское чем священное. Что касается провиденциализма, в средневековых грузинских исторических текстах этот метод безальтернативен.

Le XXIe Congrès International des Etudes Byzantines s'est déroulé du 21 au 26 août 2006 à  Londres, à l'Institut de l'Education. Il a été revelé au cours de ce Congrès, en discussions ou séances plénières pas mal de nouveautés portant sur tous les aspects d'Etudes Byzantines. Les ouvrages des byzantinistes présentés  à  ce Congrès ont encore une fois démontré que les chercheurs de l'histoire de l'Empire de Byzance opèrent avec de nouvelles méthodes de recherche et la discipline enrichit par conséquent de nouvelles approches.
Contrairementaux méthodes de recherche traditionnelles appliquées à ce jour en byzantinologie, les ouvrages présentés au Congrès donnent une place particulière à l'approche des sujets portant sur les mentalités ce qui fut, dans un passé aussi recént un phénomène étranger dans ce domaine historique ne faisant l'objet que des intérêts des médiévistes. Grâce à l'approche des aspects de l'histoire des mentalités comme le climat et l'espace, la mort et les funérailles, la médecine et la peste, le rire et la femme et d'autres évoquant universellement une réalité sociale et historique, les byzantinistes modernes essayent de restituer l'image de l'univers de l'homme d'origine byzantine.

The iconographic composition of the Deesis occupies special place in Georgia. Besides the iconography this plot is a part of the decorative repertoire of the manuscripts. It must be noted that the “Last Judgement" of the Gelati Four Gospels (11 cent.) found it sufficient to depict the idea of the trial by means of the composition of the Deesis (if we do not take into consideration the river of fire) which, we think, is not caused by the simplicity of the miniature and the "faithfulness" to the New Testament text. Evidently, the decorator of the manuscript gave a special ideological and emotional meaning to this subject. The more so, for it is Deesis again that is depicted on the frontispiece of the Gospel, as an independent composition. Similar to the Gelati Gospel, we find Deesis on the frontispiece of the 2nd Jruchi Gospel as well, which must have been a local, Georgian tradition. There cannot be any other explanation for placing Deesis on the frontispiece of the Mokvi Four Gospels which is considered to be a specimen of the miniature painting of the Paleologan style (I. chichinadze). It is noteworthy that the accentuation of the theme of Deesis is not characteristic of only miniature painting. The same tendency is seen in the mural painting (in this case Deesis is meant as an independent composition and not as part of the Last Judgement). This composition mainly occupied the conch of the main apse, i.e. the central and conspicuous place in the interior of the temple. It can be easily imagined that during the service it was the part of the church that would catch the eye of the parishioners. Therefore the choice of the decorator was not at all fortuitous. On the contrary, the program of the church decoration revealed the peculiarity not only of the Georgian monumental painting, but the attitude towards Christianity in general. At the time when the Byzantine painting seldom made Deesis its subject and it did not have a definite place in the program of decoration, in Georgia it was the most widespread subject. It is sufficient to say that in the Svanian monuments the conch of the altar was never adorned with any other composition but the Deesis in the course of existence of the school of painting (10th-17th cent.). We have specially discussed the specimens of the Oshki donors' Deesis where the builders of the church David Magistros and Bagrat Eristavi of Eristavis are presented as part of this scene in the relief compositions of the interior and exterior. In our opinion, the emphasizing of this theme in the church of Oshki must have a more profound foundation than the depicting the glorification of the Tao kings by including the church builders in the composition. We think V. Jobadze's observation right. He considers the portraying of two groups of donors in Oshki, and in both cases in the Deesis, besides emphasizing the work of donor monarchs is their wish to justify themselves before their father Adarnase Kuropalat. But, evidently, the main motive of Adarnase's sons was the repentance of the sin they had committed more than the justification before the father whom they had captured and forced to take a monk's vows. That is why they appeared as part of the traditional composition of the Deesis and tried to expiate their sin by means of the sinful mankind's intercessors. The inscriptions on the church walls are also full of the idea of the entreaty which speaks of a particular meaning of this subject in Oshki. It can be said that all the persons connected with the building of the church or its restoration or decoration were depicted in the Deesis composition (the figure of Grigol of Oshki is part of the complicated composition of the octahedran column Deesis, and the Patrikios Jojiki who had the church painted in 1036 is seen in the scene, according to the inscription, expressing the idea of the entreaty, though interpreted in a different way).

Unlike the Catholic Church where the individual, private judgement came into being spontaneously in the preaching of catholic orders and in the exempla and visiones which was certainly helped by birth of the purgatory, it had existed in the Eastern Church since olden times. The "air guards" well known to Georgian hagiographic literature as well as to the apocryphal texts and historiography are directly connected with it. They present the intermediate transitory link which the soul will pass from the moment of death to the final clearing up of its fate. But this link excludes all kinds of purification and is limited by individual punishment. In all this literature mentioned by us the air guards are spoken about at the time of death when the soul free from its body accompanied by guardian angel will pass through the tax offices and the air guards or tax collectors will make it answer for the sins it has committed. While discussing the formation of the purgatory doctrine by Catholic Church, we mentioned the fact that Orthodox Church had not accepted it remained faithful to the New Testament tradition. The Eastern Church admitted the existence of a private trial at tax offices which according to the same Church precedes the Judgement Day. The motive of a private judgement has its foundation in the oldest ideas of the beyond world, and if the appearence of the individual judgement in the West arose on the basis of the birth of the purgatory, the Orthodox Church had known it earlier. Proceeding from the teaching of the Christian Church, the sentence passed preliminarily, at a private trial ("telonion" - in Greek, "Мыта́рства" - in Russian, "საზვერეები" - in Georgian) to the deceased acted till the universal judgement.

In this article are discussed the opinions that have been expressed about the author of the "Life of Serapion of Zarzma" - Basili of Zarzma and the date of this hagiographic work. There are two groups of scholars, having different opinions on this question. One asserts that the vita was written earlier (2 nd half of the VII th c.), the other one presents more and more arguments to prove its being of a later date (1 st half of the X th c.), thus trying to get the better of their opponents.

There are different points of view in connection with dating the work "Tskhovreba"  (Life) of the founder of the Monastery of Zarzma and its first Father-Superior - Serapion. In this chapter are discussed the opinions that have been expressed in scholarship on the basis of comparing "The Life" with the information of other sources.
There are two groups of scholars, having different opinions on this question. One asserts that the work was written earlier, the other one presents more and more arguments to prove its being of a later date, thus trying to get the better of their opponents. The supporters of the point of view of the earlier dating think that the work represents the history of the 2 nd half of the 6 th century, and the work itself was written in the 1 st half of the 7 th century. the supporters of the other point of view consider that Serapion's vita describes the situation, existing in the 2 nd half of the 9 th century (Ms Natela Vachnadze still more narrowed this date and declared it to be the 80s of the 9 th century), and it must have been written in the 1 st half of the 10th century, much earlier than 951. There is a third intermediate point of view (Simon Nikoloz Janashia) who thought that the date shouldn't have been lower than the 8th century. The earlier dating of "The Life" was raised by the Georgian scholar Mr. Pavle Ingorokva; however, in the much later academic edition of scholar's work did not include this subject in it at all. In this way the scholar himself rejected his own point of view about "Tskhovreba" having been written in earlier times. Meanwhile, the point f view of the later dating was universally acknowledged (Donald Rayfield).

The objective of the research is to show the attitude of the medieval Georgian society to the sin and both kinds of judgement of sinners - individual, which takes place at the very moment of death and the last judgement - at the Second Coming of Christ, all this considering the existing experience of studying mentality. We tried to find out the attribution and functions of the "air guards" on the basis of the Georgian hagiographic, apocryphal, documentary and historical monuments, also to observe the process of realizing eschatological ideas in the Georgian art, and see the disposition and spiritual demands of society beyond it.
The thesis presents a problem - an attempt at studying mentality that has not been studied in the Georgian historiography thoroughly. In it the problem of sin and eschatological fear in the medieval society of Georgia has been studied and analyzed according to the French the Annales school.
The question of the attribution of the air guards and their functions in the mentioned Georgian narrative and documentary monuments is determined. We have proved that the idea spread in the Georgian scientific literature of the air guards being mythological characters is incorrect.
The work deals with the subject of the "judgement day" and its coming into being and development in Byzantine, Georgian, Russian and European literature and art. Several versions of separate parts of the Last Judgement composition (Deesis, hetoimasia, paradise, hell) are presented both in the Georgian and foreign monuments (monumental painting, miniature, chasing, enamel) and their initial literary sources.
The thesis shows the priority of the Georgian iconography compared with literature in expressing eschatological views. Besides, we share the idea that Deesis as the subject of absolving and tolerating sins occupies a special place in the system of the Georgian medieval thinking, which is corroborated by the existence of a steady iconographic tradition.

The paper is concerned with the study of the French historical revolution: the Annales School and the New History. The Annales School is the innovatory trend which had an important influence upon the  historiography of the 20th century.
Annales approach rejected the predominant emphasis on political history by positivism of the 19th century historians. Their ideal was the “total  history” which implied to reflect thoroughly the historical reality. 
Marc Bloch died during the Second World War and Lucien Febvre continued to carry on the Annales approach. In 1947 was founded by him the VIth section of the École pratique des hautes études.
The second era of Annales’ historiography is connected with the name of Fernan Braudel who pioneered la longue durée, an approach for studing long-term structures over historical events.
Since 1960s the history of mentalities getting characteristic for the  Annales School. Attitudes toward death, childhood, love, sexuality etc. in the works of Ph. Ariès, M. Vovelle, J. Le Goff, E. Le Roy Ladurie became predominant.
Montaillou, village occitan de 1294 à 1324 was published in 1975. The work is based on an unique source – notes of the Inquisition active in 1318-1325 in the village  of Montaillou against Cathar heresy. It is shown in the paper how Ladurie managed to offer a picture of both the material and mental worlds of the villagers.
The Georgian translation of the chapter “Death in Montaillou” with a commentary, is appended to the article.

The article deals with the study of monograph of a famous French historian, Jacques Le Goff - "The Birth of
Purgatory", which was printed in Paris in 1981. In the cited work is discussed an important problem of the Western Christianity, such as the change of the other world picture (hell-paradise) with a new one (hell-purgatory-paradise).
According to Jacques Le Goff purgatory as the space and time was formed between 3th-12th centuries and was connected with the redemption of some sins after death by purifying fire. It was the faith of temporal punishment, where souls of those who have died without mortal sin can expiate their venial sins by temporary suffering before enter heaven. The faith of purgatory was born in practice: suffrages of the living by prayers, alms and other good works for the salvation of their souls who have died.
The Biblical dossier of purgatory (which was denied by the most of heretics in the middle ages and Protestants) consists of four texts: 1.In the Old Testament: The sacrifice ordered by Jude Maccabeus for the redemption of sins of the soldiers who died in battle (II Mac. XII, 41-46); 2.In the New Testament: a. The text from the Gospel according to Matthew which mentions about forgiving sins in a next world (Matthew XII, 31-32); b. The passage from the Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, which describes the purification of some category of sinners after death quasi per ignem (so as through fire) (I Corinthians, III, 11-15), text of Saint Paul which was the object of the most comments in the middle ages; c. The history of the poor Lazarus and the rich man (Luke, XVI, 19-31). According to Jacques Le Goff Abraham’s bosom described in the Gospel was the first Christian incarnation of purgatory.
The idea about an intermediate place and time of the other world on a theological level appeared with refrigerium (refreshing place) of Tertullian, while the ideas of Clement of Alexandria and Origen have no posterity in Greek Christianity. Veritable Fathers of purgatory St.Augustine and Gregory the Great laid down theoretical foundations to the doctrine of purgatory rejected by the Eastern Church during the debates of the 12-th century.
Between 1170-1180 in Latin appeared the noun purgatorium, which practically was the birth of purgatory as the determined place.
In the 13-th century purgatory have well installed in the Western Christianity: on a dogmatic level in the letter of Innocent IV (1254) and in the reports of the second Council of Lyons (1274) within the union of Latin and Greek Churches; On a theological level with integration of purgatory in the great theological systems; And in believers, on a mass level, by sermons and the exempla. At last the poetic triumph of purgatory - "The Divine Comedy" of Dante, where the third place of the other world settled down between hell and paradise.

This publication presents the translation of the article of French historian and Byzantinist Evelyne Patlagean on childhood in Byzantine family being published in Annales de démographie historique 1973. Enfant et Sociétés. Paris-La Haye, 1973. The translation is based on the original article : L’Enfant Et Son Avenir Dans La Famille Byzantine (IVe –XIIe siècles) published in Structure sociale, famille, chrétienté à Byzance. IVe – XIe siècles (Collected Studies Series; CS 134), London, 1981, pp. 85-93.
In the article is studied the attitudes of the family and the society towards the children in Byzantium. Author considered many cases that gave her an opportunity to determine the Byzantine definition of the childhood.
E. Patlagean researched several historical sources such as hagiographical texts, epitaphs and especially the works of Byzantine law and defined the institution of marriage in Byzantium and the age of marriage. She had cited: Codex Justinianus, Basilika, Imperatorum Leges Novellae, the Ecloga, the Prochiron, the Epanagoge, as well as the collections of Ecclesiastical law: the canons of the ecclesiastic councils, Nomocanon etc. and showed that despite the strict state legislation and church prohibitions in many cases the established age of marriage and engagement was violated.
The translation is provided with our commentaries and notes.

This publication presents the translation of the article of a French byzantinist Evelyne Patlagean – “The Ancient Byzantine Hagiography and the Social History». This article for the first time was published in Annales
(Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations 1.Paris, 1968).
The work of Evelyne Patlagean is an important in many respects. On the one hand, interpretating the mental
categories of the hagiography, she restores the mentality of the Early Byzantine society. As a record of ideas and mentalities hagiography reflects the change in the society. Medieval hagiography is explored for historical information, provided a good forum for locating social transformation. On the other hand, the method of structural analysis used in the article gives her an opportunity to expose a complex structure. According to French byzantinist hagiographical texts
reveal three superposed models: demonic, scriptural and ascetic. Besides she shows the confrontation of time and space categories in the historical and hagiographical texts and its value in the exploration of the social history. In sum she argues, that the illustration of the Byzantine hagiography revealed a structure in which the information of the social history is evidenced.
The present translation of E.Patlagean’s article is published with the introduction and commentaries of the translator.

"The Life of Basil the Younger" is a widespread monument in the Eastern Christian
world. It was written in the tenth century by Gregory, disciple of Basil, who is
also a main character of "The Life". Greek text is preserved in three editions, among
them the first and the longest version dates from the second half of the tenth century.
"The Life of Basil the Younger" was very popular in Russia and dozens of manuscripts
were copied there. "The Life" was often inserted in the Russian illustrated
apocalypses among other eschatological works. Besides the Russian, there are also
Southern Slavonic editions, corroborating that "The Life" was formerly translated
from Greek and widely diffused in Slavonic countries. First of all, it was the eschatological
character of the work that made it popular. S. Vilinski argued that "The Life of
Basil the Younger" was as important for the Byzantine and Russian-Slavonic literature,
as Dante’s work for the European literature. But it was not only literature that
this monument left special impact on, Theodora’s vision added new elements to the
iconography of the "Last Judgement".
"The Life" is also translated into Georgian.There are two manuscripts that have
reached us copied in the 17-th and 18-th centuries. It is unknown when "The Life"
was translated into Georgian, but as for its popularity, the two manuscripts do not
allow us to assert it. One thing is clear, there must have been the illustrated version of
"The Life", for a great number of blank places in both manuscripts must have been
meant for later decorating them with miniatures.
In the Georgian scientific literature there is a wrong tendency to elucidate the
term "Air Guards" by giving priority to "The Life of Basil the Younger." It is also incorrect to represent them as mythological characters and identify them with "kajis"
and "tchinkas" (mythological creatures similar to evil spirits).The teaching about the
tollhouses as an individual judgement existed in the Church on the basis of a sacred
legend since old times. Church Fathers Antony the Great, Ephrem the Syrian, John
Chrysostom, Makarios the Great, Cyril of Alexandria and John of Damascus tell us
about the "tollhouses" and the "Air Guards"-executors of the private judgement- in
their works. According to these teachings the tollhouses (teloneia) are situated in the
air, the soul passes them after death and answers for all sins it committed in life.
Unlike the Catholic Church where the individual private judgement came into
being spontaneously in different genres of literature, which was certainly helped by
the birth of the purgatory, it had existed in the Eastern Church since olden times. But
it is beyond any doubt that "The Life of Basil the Younger" made an important contribution
in wide diffusing of this tradition in the Middle Ages.

The paper deals with one of the main problems of Christian theological literature – that of sin and salvation. The reality that is called sin in Christianity has accompanied it (Christianity) throughout its history. True, Christ triumphed over death as the consequence of this reality, sin continues to dominate in the world, causing the perdition of man. In this connection vast material is cited on the theology of sin, in particular the conception of sin in the Old and New Testaments, in the works of the Church Fathers, including Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, Gregory of Nissa, Basil the Great, Ephraem the Syrian, John Chrysostom, St. Augustine, John of Damascus, and others. The concept of sin is studied in the Georgian (Orthodox) and European (Catholic) systems of thought.
It is stressed that, unlike the Catholic West, in Georgia there did not exist the practice of compiling the so-called Liber Poenitentialis, nor the diverse genre of Exempla and Visiones . Instead, the concept of sin can be researched in Georgian law documents (Small Nomocanon, Grand Nomocanon, The Code of the Ruis-Urbnisi Council), in hymnographic works (Hymns of Repentance), as well as in a group of late medieval manuscripts. In shedding light on the main aspects of the theology of sin in various thought systems it transpires that fear of sin and interest in the salvation of the soul hold a special place in these systems, notwithstanding the differing territory of sin, and that it derives from common Christian tradition.

The article deals with Ekvtime Takaishvili's works published in foreign editions in the period of his French emigration, studied and considered on the basis of archive materials.
As it is known, Ekvtime Takaishvili printed eleven articles in the scholarly publications of Paris, Brussels and London in 1927-1938. The articles are written in the French and English languages. These publications are as follows: Journal Asiatique, Byzantion, Georgica, Review de l'Orient and Promethee.
The article is appended by the list of E. Takaishvili's foreign publications, but the list is not chronological. It is compiled according to the publications, presented in the languages of the original and the Georgian language, also our translation from french of the article, printed in the magazine Promethee. This historical essay, concerning the intellectual life in Georgia, unlike Ekvtime Takaishvili's other works, more or less known in his mother country before they were published abroad, was never published  in Georgian. So it was unknown to the scholarly society up to the present day.

ფრანგული ემიგრაციის პერიოდში ექვთიმე თაყაიშვილმა გააგრძელა საქართველოში იძულებით შეწყვეტილი სამეცნიერო მუშაობა. 1922 წელს იგი საფრანგეთის ნუმიზმატთა საზოგადოების წევრი გახდა, მოგვიანებით 1925 წელს პარიზის ერთ-ერთ უძველეს სააზიო საზოგადოებაში გაწევრიანდა. ამას გარდა, იგი ხშირად იბეჭდებოდა ემიგრანტულ პერიოდულ პრესაში. საფრანგეთშივე იხილა დღის სინათლე მისმა გამოკვლევებმა “არქეოლოგიური ექსპედიცია ლეჩხუმ-სვანეთში 1910 წელს” (პარიზი, 1937 წ.) და “არქეოლოგიური ექსპედიცია კოლა-ოლთისში და ჩანგლში, 1907 წ.” (პარიზი, 1938 წ.). უფრო ადრე 1933 წელს გამოიცა “პარიზის ნაციონალური ბიბლიოთეკის ქართული ხელნაწერები და ოცი ქართული საიდუმლო დამწერლობის ნიშანი”. პარალელურად იგი აქვეყნებდა სტატიებს ევროპულ ენებზე სხვადასხვა სამეცნიერო გამოცემებში.

The medieval Greek apocryphal literature a long time have been examined basically by theologians. The new approaches appeared in historical epistemology have taken root in such traditional territory as Byzantine Studies as well. Composed on the periphery of the Official Church, this literature reflect simultaneously steady Christian tradition and beyond this tradition, the disposition of the society and its spiritual demands.
Medieval people lived in desperate expectation of Eschatological time managed by the fear of death, eternal condemnation, the Second Coming and the Last Judgment. Apocalyptic and apocryphal texts about the visions of the Afterlife, visionary journeys to Heaven and Hell of Virgin Mary, Apostle Paul and other Saints, widely circulated
in Byzantium and far beyond.
In Georgia the eschatological ideas about the End Times, the Second Coming and the Last Judgment besides the translations of the Old and the New Testaments, spread by means of the translations of theological literature and first of all, of the works of apocryphal character.
What do the apocalyptic texts tell us about feelings, sins, hopes or fears of the people?
In what circles did they create, and to what audience were they addressed?
For what purpose were apocalyptic texts written, copied, translated and what caused its exceptional popularity not only in the Eastern Christianity, but in certain content in the Western tradition too?
I will consider these and other questions on the example of four eschatological books, which are preserved in dozens of Georgian manuscripts of the XI-XIX centuries. Two among them – the Apocalypse of Paul and the Life of Andrew the Fool, were already translated in the XI c. that confirmed in the letter of Euthymius Athonite. The oldest Georgian manuscript of another apocryphon the – Apocalypse of the Virgin Mary – not mentioned in this letter dated back to the XIII c. As for the Life of Saint Basil the Younger, the only two existed mss of the Vita belonged to the XVII and XVIII centuries.

International Kartvelological Congress I Problems and Prospects of Kartvelology was held on 11 - 13 November, 2015 in Tbilisi. The Congress was organized by the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and the Georgian Patriarchate.
Among the participants were representative kartvelologists from France, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Romania, Japan, Israel, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Russia, Armenia, Russia, Chechnya, Ingushetia etc.
The International Kartvelological Congress was opened on 11 November in the Georgian National Academy of Sciences by welcome speech of Academician Roin Metreveli, the Vice-President of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, the chairman of the organizing committee of the Congress.
After the plenary meeting the sessions continued in the sections. There were three sections: Section of Linguistics, Section of Georgian History and Religion and Section of Literature and Art.

International Kartvelological Congress I Problems and Prospects of Kartvelology was held on 11 - 13 November, 2015 in Tbilisi. The Congress was organized by the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and the Georgian Patriarchate.
Among the participants were representative kartvelologists from France, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Romania, Japan, Israel, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Russia, Armenia, Russia, Chechnya, Ingushetia etc.
The International Kartvelological Congress was opened on 11 November in the Georgian National Academy of Sciences by welcome speech of Academician Roin Metreveli, the Vice-President of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, the chairman of the organizing committee of the Congress.
After the plenary meeting the sessions continued in the sections. There were three sections: Section of Linguistics, Section of Georgian History and Religion and Section of Literature and Art.

International Kartvelological Congress I Problems and Prospects of Kartvelology was held on 11 - 13 November, 2015 in Tbilisi. The Congress was organized by the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and the Georgian Patriarchate.
Among the participants were representative kartvelologists from France, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Romania, Japan, Israel, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Russia, Armenia, Russia, Chechnya, Ingushetia etc.
The International Kartvelological Congress was opened on 11 November in the Georgian National Academy of Sciences by welcome speech of Academician Roin Metreveli, the Vice-President of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, the chairman of the organizing committee of the Congress.
After the plenary meeting the sessions continued in the sections. There were three sections: Section of Linguistics, Section of Georgian History and Religion and Section of Literature and Art.

Three Byzantine texts: The Apocalypse of the Virgin, the Life of Basil theYounger and the Life of Andreas Salos are of great importance in Christian Eschatology. Despite the considerable quantity of Byzantine apocaliptic literature these texts were especially popular in Eastern Christianity and circulated in several languages (Greek, Syriac, Ethiopic, Georgian, Latin, Arabic, Russian, Slavonic, Armenian). Among other apocryphal books mentioned in the Index of Euthymius Athonite (11 c.) is the Life of Andreas Salos. Apocryphal tendences is characteristic to the Life of Basil the Younger as well. Theodora’s journey through the toll houses - post-mortem judgement scene - according to the vita was the most popular source about individual judgement in Eastern Christianity. It is quite impossible to explain the teaching on toll houses without taking into consideration the lives and writings of the Church Fathers (Antony the Great, Ephrem the Syrian, John chrysostom, Makarios the Great, Cyril of Alexandria, John the Merciful) and the New Testament (Matthew 9:9 - 11). What is the eschatological model according to these texts translated in Georgian and preserved in many versions? In Roman Catholic theology the individual judgement came into being spontaneously in the Exempla, Visiones as well as in the preachings of Catholic religious orders. This was certainly helped by the birth of the Purgatory. Unlike the Catholic doctrine particular judgement had been existed since olden times in Eastern Orthodox tradition. The tax-collectors (Air guards - ჰაერის მცველნი in the Georgian MSS) of the Life of Basil the Younger present the intermediary state which the soul will pass from the moment of death to the final clearing up of its fate. The judgement of the air guards – tax collectors will make answer the soul accompanied by its guardian angel, for the sins it has committed. When the amount of good deeds prevails the soul goes to the Gates of Heaven without delay. We have the perfect description of Paradise in the Life of Andreas Salos preserved in the more than thirty Georgian MSS. If the soul questioned at the aerial toll houses is unable to prove its innocence, tax-collectors take it to hell. The hell according to the Apocalypse of the Virgin (The Wanderings of the Virgin according to the Georgian MSS) is a very dark place. The darkness as well as fire are the main punishments that have been prepared for the sinners. Descriptions of Paradise and hell, nearly unkown in the Georgian Hagiographic literature, are complemented with the journeys of Andrew through the heavens and Paradise and of the Virgin Mary through the hell. Unlike Georgian Hagiography these eschatological themes are reflected best of all in iconography and found diverse representations in the Georgian monumental painting and illuminative art.The eschatological model – Afterlife/Paradise/Hell – based on the New Testament and the Church Fathers’ teaching is mostly determined by apocryphal literature.

The New Testament apocrypha “Descent of the Virgin into hell” or “The Wanderings of the Virgin”  (in the Greek original “The Apocalypse of the Virgin”) is presented in many Georgian manuscripts. The oldest of them, A-70  dates from the XIII th century. There are different opinions in the scientific literature about the creation of the Greek text.
This apocryphal and eschatological writing is well-known in the Eastern Christian literature. The Georgian, Greek, Russian, Ethiopic and Armenian translations proposed many variations of The Wanderings of the Virgin that are caused by different historical, confessional and in general by mental attitudes.
Described in this monument the picture of the sinners’ punishment in hell is very emotional and realistic. These sufferings in fact caused the great interest to the apocrypha which reflected in popular beliefs as well.
“The Wanderings of the Virgin“  is nearly unknown in the Western Christian literature. It seems the image of the Virgin described in the apocrypha didn’t go well together with the type of Madonna based in the West (Tihonravov). The Wanderings  stood out with extremely severe colour didn’t force one’s way in the Western Christianity.
It is supposed that thanks to “The Wanderings of the Virgin” composition of  the Deesis entered the iconography of  the Last Judgement. Solicitation of the Holy Virgin to our Savior to absolve sins of every man and for the salvation of their souls – the main subject of the apocrypha joined well with the picture of the Last Judgement and made an inalienable component of the composition.
The problem of the interrelation of popular and official cultures in the Middle Ages is an issue. There is no also a simple response of the question – is there paradox the crossing of these cultures? It’s  a fact that on the apocrypha’s “territory” these cultures has come to terms. The books that were not tolerated by the Church  made an important contribution in spreading of eschatological ideas on a mass level.

The date of translation of the "Apocalypse of Paul" in Georgian is unknown, but in the Index of Euthymius Athonite (11th c.) among the eleven apocryphal books is already mentioned “Paul’s Vision of the Heaven”. The oldest of the Georgian manuscript containing this apocrypha is dated to the 15th-16th centuries (Kut. 128). There are 8 mss. witnessing the Georgian text of the ApP. They belong to the similar and nearly identical recension, which is completely different among the various presently known of the ApP.
Despite the eschatological ideas and many versions of the Apocalypse in Georgia as well as in the Eastern-Christian tradition the apocrypha couldn’t widely spread. “The Vision of Paul the Apostle” haven’t shared the popularity of another apocrypha "Apocalypse of the Virgin”. This one had the same role in the Eastern Christianity as the Apocalypse of Paul” in the West. Apparently, this is mostly caused by the mental attitudes, than the dogmatic distinctions between the East and the West.

The topic of our paper is the concept of time in the medieval world view according Georgian historical and hagiographical sources of the IV-XI centuries. The dominance of the church over the time is the common for the Western and Eastern Christianity. The hagiogtaphical narrative is emphasized with churh time, which recognize only one calendar – church year, annual cycle in commemoration of the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every minute and second of the the astronomical day divided into 24 hours is the prerogative of church. The days are observed as the commemoration of saints and martyrs and are exspressed by their feasts. In liturgy smaller unit of measuring the time is “zhami” (time, hour), universal unit expressing the church time of hagiography as well as historiography’s secular time.
A significant part of church time is the Eschatological time. According to the author of “Martyrdom of Abo of Tbilisi” - Ioane Sabanisdze: “We have reached the shortened time, the last hour of our being”. “Shortened time”, seventh period (მეშვიდე დარი) is the end of time (cf. Matthew 24,22) and this theory belongs to the VIIIth century author.
Unlike hagiographic literature in the historical narrative of the IV-XI centuries and especially in Kartlis Tskhovreba  (The Life of Kartli) the Eschatological idea is presented with general discourse; Although we can say that in many cases the church time prevails in historiography too.
The annual cycle in historiography is formed by twelve months and four seasons; the division of daytime is more secular than religious. As for providentialism, this belief have no alternative in Georgian historical writing of the Middle Ages.

Thesis Review of my Doctoral Dissertation: Sin and Fear in the Middle Ages (Two aspects of the Georgian mentality model), 2005, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University.
Reviewed by Prof. Dr. Werner  Seibt, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Byzantine research Department, Department Member. Dr. Werner Seibt, retired Professor for Byzantine Studies and Medieval History.
Thesis Review is written in German, appended with translation in Georgian.

The objective of the research is to show the attitude of the medieval Georgian society to the sin and both kinds of judgement of sinners - individual, which takes place at the very moment of death and the last judgement - at the Second Coming of Christ, all this considering the existing experience of studying mentality. We tried to find out the attribution and functions of the "air guards" on the basis of the Georgian hagiographic, apocryphal, documentary and historical monuments, also to observe the process of realizing eschatological ideas in the Georgian art, and see the disposition and spiritual demands of society beyond it. The dissertation presents a problem - an attempt at studying mentality that has not been studied in the Georgian historiography thoroughly. In it the problem of sin and eschatological fear in the medieval society of Georgia has been studied and analyzed according to the French the Annales school. The question of the attribution of the "air guards" and their functions in the mentioned Georgian narrative and documentary monuments is determined. We have proved that the idea spread in the Georgian scientific literature of "the air guards" being mythological characters is incorrect. The work deals with the subject of the "judgement day" and its coming into being and development in Byzantine, Georgian, Russian and European literature and art. Several versions of separate parts of the Last Judgement" composition (Deesis, hetoimasia, paradise, hell) are presented both in the Georgian and foreign monuments (monumental painting, miniature, chasing, enamel) and their initial literary sources. The thesis shows the priority of the Georgian iconography compared with literature in expressing eschatological views. Besides, we share the idea that Deesis as the subject of absolving and tolerating sins occupies a special place in the system of the Georgian medieval thinking, which is corroborated by the existence of a steady iconographic tradition.