Vakhtang VI of Kartli - Scholarly and Cultural Activities

Scholarly and Cultural Activities

Although Vakhtang’s political decisions have sometimes been object of criticism, his scholarly and cultural activities are the crowning merits of his reign. He was, indeed, one of the most learned monarchs of the time. He was an author and organiser of numerous cultural and educational projects aimed at reviving the country’s intellectual life. It was him who, with the help of the archbishop of Walachia Anthim the Georgian, established, in 1709, the first typography in Georgia and the whole Caucasus. Among the books published in "Vakhtang’s typography" in Tbilisi was the 12th-century national epic poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin (Vep’khistkaosani) by Shota Rustaveli, accompanied by scholarly commentaries by the king himself. This induced a new wave of interest towards that great medieval poet and would influence a new generation of Georgian poets of the 18th century, which is generally regarded as the Renaissance of the Georgian literature.

He also undertook the printing of the Bible, which had been, as it is believed, translated as early as the fifth century from the Greek into the Georgian, and corrected in the 11th century by the monks of the Georgian convent on Mount Athos. His printing house printed also the Gospels, the Acts, the Psalms, and several liturgies and prayer-books, causing a great discontent at the court of Persia which perceived that the nominally Muslim Vakhtang, instead of following the Koran, promoted Christianity.

An eminent critic and translator, Vakhtang himself was an author of several patriotic and romantic lyric poems. Vakhtang also chaired a special commission convened to edit and compile the corpus of Georgian chronicles covering the period from the Dark Ages to the early Modern era.