Specifing Two Dates in Nikoloz Baratashvili’s Studies

Abstract

At different times many respected and distinguished scientists, such as Ek. Takaishvili, D. Karichashvili, P. Ingorokva, Ak. Gatse­relia, G. Leonidze, Iv. Lolashvili, S.Phirtskhalava have worked on academic editions of Nikoloz Baratashvili's writings. Their merit in this work is undoubtedly great. For more than half a century, since the last academic edition of the poet's writings (we mean the 1972 edition by Ak. Gatserelia and Iv. Lolashvili, Tbilisi, "Soviet Geor­gia"), there have been a lot of noteworthy monographs, theses, re­sear­ches, articles and scientific letters in Baratashvilology, the re­sults of which must be reflected in the new academic two-volume edition of Nikoloz Baratashvili's writings and the bilingual (Geor­gian-English) digital chronicle of the poet's life and work. This res­ponsible work is currently being carried out within the grant pro­ject of the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (#FR-23-10216).

 The present article is devoted to some recent studies mainly concerned with the poet's epistolary heritage, which is an important and integral part of his work and, according to tradition, will take place in this edition with the appropriate scientific apparatus. These studies, along with others, naturally implied the work of finding new documents in archival and museum funds and reviewing the existing ones with a critical eye.

The results obtained in the works and given in the article, consider the issues of the biography of Baratashvili's family circle – his two sisters.

It should be noted, that our first aim was to verify the facts and circumstances, which, taking into account the latest Baratashvi­liological studies, appeared doubtfull and they need to be clarified in the academic and other scientific editions of the poet's works.

In conclusion, it should be said that basing on the currently available archival materials, we tried to shed light on several issues of the biography of Nikoloz Baratashvili's two sisters: Ekaterine Baratashvili-Eristavi and Barbare Baratashvili-Vezirishvili. The results of the research, as already mentioned, should appear both in print and electronic editions determined by the grant project, as well as in other Baratashvilological and genealogical literature.