Baratashvili, Nikoloz. The Fate of Kartli (Bedi Kartlisa). Facsimile of the 1839 autograph manuscript, 1916. In Georgian.

ბარათაშვილი, ნიკოლოზ. ბედი ქართლისა : თქმული წელსა 1839 ტფილისს : ავტოგრაფიული გამოცემა
ტფილისი : გამოცემა ამხანაგობისა (ელექტრონით მბეჭდავი ქართველთა ამხანაგობა), 1916. [64] გვერდი.
ნაბეჭდი გარეკანი. 18 სანტიმეტრი.
მდგომარეობა კარგი: გარეკანი ოდნავ გახუნებული და კიდეებზე მცირე ცვეთით, ბლოკი სუფთა და მტკიცე, ფურცლები დროის შესაბამისად თანაბრად გაყვითლებული.
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Baratashvili, Nikoloz. The Fate of Kartli : Composed in the year 1839 in Tpilisi : Facsimile of the autograph manuscript.
Tbilisi : Edition of the Fellowship (Electric Press of the Fellowship of Georgians), 1916. [64] unnumbered pages.
Paper wrappers. 18 cm.
Condition good: wrappers slightly faded with minor edge wear, text block clean and firm, pages show even age-toning typical for the era.

An exceptional and highly scarce pre-revolutionary facsimile edition of "Bedi Kartlisa" (The Fate of Kartli), the magnum opus of Nikoloz Baratashvili (1817-1845). Universally recognized as the pinnacle of Georgian Romanticism and often referred to as the "Georgian Byron," Baratashvili left behind a small but profoundly influential body of work, all published posthumously. "Bedi Kartlisa," written in 1839, is his longest and most historically significant narrative poem. It explores the agonizing decision of King Erekle II to seek Russian protection after the devastating sack of Tbilisi by the Persian army in 1795, a choice that permanently altered the destiny of the Georgian nation. This specific 1916 publication, issued by the Georgian Fellowship Press in Tbilisi, is a complete lithographic facsimile of Baratashvili's original handwritten manuscript. Producing a facsimile of a poet's raw autograph was a sophisticated and costly typographical achievement for early twentieth-century Georgia, intended to preserve the physical memory of the national genius whose original manuscripts were incredibly scarce and venerated as relics. The book reproduces his distinct, elegant cursive script without any modern typesetting. Pre-Soviet Georgian literary editions of this delicacy, especially fragile paper-bound volumes, have suffered extremely high attrition rates during the turbulent decades that followed their publication. This well-preserved copy is a monument of Caucasian literary history and a highly coveted artifact for collectors of Georgian poetry, Romantic literature, and rare antiquarian book arts.