Georgian Manuscripts

Select important Georgian texts spanning 900 years, from an 11th-century menologion to the 1907 Memorandum of the people of Georgia.

The Bodleian’s Georgian manuscripts and archives collection holds manuscripts and archival materials from all subject areas from the 7th to the 20th century CE. The nucleus of the Bodleian Library's rich holdings of Georgian books and manuscripts is the Wardrop Collection, formed by Sir Oliver Wardrop, the first British Chief Commissioner of the Transcaucasus, and his sister Marjory Wardrop. After Marjory's early death in 1909, the Marjory Wardrop Fund was founded for the encouragement of Georgian studies and from 1910, through this fund, the Bodleian became the beneficiary of all Marjory Wardrop's papers, books and manuscripts. They were supplemented by further donations from Sir Oliver until his death in 1948 and two more recent donations from Sir Oliver's descendants in 2017 and 2018.

Digitized items include MS. Georg. b. 1, an 11th century autograph manuscript by Giorgi Prokhore, the founder of the Holy Cross Monastery in Jerusalem, which contains important hagiographic texts and other significant ecclesiastical texts; and MS. Wardrop d. 17 and MS. Wardrop d. 27, two 17th century copies of the ‘The Knight in the Panther's Skin’, Vepʿxistqaosani (ვეფხისტყაოსანი), that are listed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.