The Beautiful Fonts and Scripts of Georgia

There is an apparent similarity between the Georgian alphabet and the Georgian nation – they both are very old and very interesting. The origin of the Georgian script is poorly known, and no full agreement exists among Georgian and foreign scholars as to its date of its creation, who designed the script, and the main influences on that process. There are three important periods in the history of Georgian writing: Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli. Each of these alphabets has its own graphic style, though each subsequently follows the predecessor. The Nuskhuri alphabet was formed because of the development of Asomtavruli; and Mkhedruli alphabet was created after development of Nuskhuri. The main reason for these modifications was an aspiration of the Georgian people to refine and simplify their writing system.  

The Nuskhuri alphabet is the second stage of the development of the Georgian alphabet. Samples of the this script are dated the IX c. The letters here are tied and bent to the right.

‘Nuskhuri’ is formed from the word ‘Nuskha’, which according to the Georgian scholar and writer of the 18th century, Sulkhan Saba Orbeliani, means 'rapid writing'. The oldest Nuskhuri inscription appears in 859 AD and was found on the wall of the Ateni Sioni Church. The first manuscript with the Nuskhuri alphabet is the testament of ‘Sinuri Mravaltavi’, (864 AD). It is noteworthy that only a small portion of the testament is written in Nuskhuri letters, and the majority using the Asomtavruli script.

The first Georgian font was created in Europe. In 1625, the King of East Georgia, Teimuraz I, sent Niceforo Irbach (also named as Nikoloz Cholokashvili – Georgian clergyman, politician, ambassador and scholar) to Italy, Rome, as a Georgian envoy to seek allies and to ask for assistance in holding off the Turks and Persians.  The ambassadorial mission did not have much political success, but it did bring about a significant cultural event – the printing of the first Georgian book.

The Italian missionary Francisco-Maria Maggio was one of the first who commenced scientific study of the Georgian language, when the young man received an extraordinary assignment from the Pope and was sent to Georgia for the missionary work. Maggio's work is the first known grammar of the Georgian language. At the same time, it is the first grammar in the Ibero-Caucasian linguistic world. On the first page of ‘The Georgian Grammar’ is written: “The work on Eastern languages which are used in Georgia". The first edition contains grammatical rules of Georgian or Iberian colloquial.

In 1692, the Amsterdam mayor and amateur scholar Nicolaes Witsen (1641-1717) published a compendium titled "Noord en Oost Tartarye" (“Northern and Eastern Tartaria”), describing Siberia and the surrounding areas, though without literary references. He consulted classical authors and Arabic medieval writers as well as his learned contemporaries in Europe. In his second enlarged edition, Witsen gave an account of all the information available to the Europeans at that time about the northern and eastern parts of Europe, Asia, the Caucasus, etc. In this addition, Statesman included list of 900 Georgian words and illustrations of the Georgian language's writing system.   

The history of the Georgian printing press and typography starts from 1708-1709. This is the time when the first Georgian printing house was established by Vakhtang VI in a specially constructed building on the left bank of the Mtkvari River in Tbilisi. The King appointed Hungarian-Romanian typographer Mikheil Ungrovlakheli as a director of the printing house. After the Gospel, in 1709-1712, the printing house published eleven books. Among them the most notable editions were 'The Knight in the Panther's Skin' of Rustaveli, with the basic scientific research accompanied by scholarly commentaries from the King himself (1712). In 1712, Vakhtang left for Persia, after which the working process of the printing house slowed. Only five books were published in 1713-1720. In 1721-1722, the printing house experienced some kind of revival when Bakar, son of Vakhtang and Vakhushti Bagrationi, published a scientific textbook ‘Faith of Man’ or ‘Yayati’, which was translated by Vakhtang VI. The printing house’s last publication was ‘The Book of Hours’ (1722). In 1723, it was closed due to an Ottoman invasion.

Mkhedruli is the third and current Georgian alphabet. This script first appears in the 10th century. The oldest Mkhedruli inscription is found in Ateni Sioni Church dating back to 982 AD. The second oldest Mkhedruli-written text is found in the 11th-century royal charters of King Bagrat IV of Georgia. Mkhedruli was mostly used then in the Kingdom of Georgia for the royal charters, historical documents, manuscripts and inscriptions. It was used for non-religious purposes only and represented the "civil", "royal" and "secular" script. Though Khutsuri (Nuskhuri with Asomtavruli) was used until the 19th century, mkhedruli became more and more dominant over the two other scripts and became so popular that it was fully embedded in Georgian literature writing; during this time, all significant literary works or poems were written using this alphabet.

At the end of 2016, UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) added the Georgian alphabet to its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The decision came after the 11th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, held in the the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.