Mshvenieradze, D. M. Construction in Ancient Georgia (Stroitel'noe delo v drevney Gruzii / Samshenebelo sakme dzvel Sakartveloshi). 1952. In Russian.

Мшвениерадзе, Д. М. Строительное дело в древней Грузии.
[Параллельное грузинское заглавие: დომენტი მშვენიერაძე. სამშენებლო საქმე ძველ საქართველოში].
Тбилиси: Техника да Шрома [Техника и Труд], 1952.
476 с.: ил.; 29 см. Тираж 2000 экз. Издательский коленкоровый (ледериновый) переплёт с золотым тиснением заглавия и блинтовой рамкой с грузинским плетёным орнаментом на верхней крышке.
Состояние: хорошее.
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Mshvenieradze, D. M. Construction in Ancient Georgia (Stroitel'noe delo v drevney Gruzii).
[Parallel Georgian title: Domenti Mshvenieradze. Samshenebelo sakme dzvel Sakartveloshi].
Tbilisi: Tekhnika da Shroma [Technique and Labour], 1952.
476 pp.: illustrated; 29 cm. Print run: 2,000 copies. Publisher's leatherette binding with gilt-stamped title and a blind-stamped border with the Georgian interlaced (plait) ornament on the upper board.
Condition: Good.

This monograph by the Georgian engineer and historian of architecture Domenti (Dmitri) Mshvenieradze is one of the foundational twentieth-century studies of the material culture of building in Georgia from antiquity through the late feudal period. Drawing on archaeological fieldwork and a systematic reading of the written sources, the author examines surviving monuments of the pre-Classical and Classical eras alongside the ecclesiastical, civil, and defensive architecture that emerged after the Christianization of Iberia (Kartli) in the early fourth century — the churches, palaces, dwellings, walls and fortresses, canals and aqueducts, bridges and roads, tunnels, and rock-cut complexes of early and mature feudalism (fourth to eighteenth centuries). Particular attention is given to construction technologies: the stone-cutting traditions, mortars and binders, vaulting systems, hydraulic engineering, and seismic-resistant techniques that underpin the distinctive Georgian architectural tradition from Mtskheta and Jvari to Svetitskhoveli, Bagrati, Gelati, Vardzia, and the Caucasian fortresses. Issued in a modest print run of 2,000 copies by Tekhnika da Shroma — the technical publishing house of the Georgian SSR — and beautifully produced with a Georgian-style ornamental title opening in parallel Georgian and Russian, the volume reflects the consolidation of Georgian national scholarship in the early 1950s, when Tbilisi's Academy of Sciences and its institutes of history, archaeology, and architecture were publishing a generation of synthesizing monographs on the pre-modern Caucasus. Long out of print, the book remains a key reference for historians of Georgian architecture, Caucasian archaeology, medieval building technology, and the cultural heritage of the South Caucasus, and is comparatively scarce on the international antiquarian market.