Rustaveli, Shota. The Knight in the Panther's Skin (Vepkhis-tkaosani). Facsimile of the 1888 Kartvelishvili edition. Illustrated by M. Zichy; ornaments and design by Grigol Tatishvili, 1988. In Georgian.

რუსთაველი, შოთა. ვეფხის-ტყაოსანი / გამოცემული გიორგი ქართველიშვილის მიერ ; ილუსტრაციები: მიხაი ზიჩი ; გაფორმება: გრიგოლ ტატიშვილი. 1888 წლის გამოცემის ფაქსიმილური გამეორება. გამომცემლობის წინასიტყვაობა: გურამ ფანჯიკიძე ; მხატვრული რედაქტორები: დავით დუნდუა, ვახტანგ მენთეშაშვილი.
თბილისი : „საბჭოთა საქართველო", 1988 (ორიგინალი: ტფილისი : ი. მარტიროსიანცის სტამბა, 1888). 360 გვერდი : ილუსტრაციებით ; 33 სმ.
მაგარი ყდა. ტირაჟი 10 000 ც.
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Rustaveli, Shota. The Knight in the Panther's Skin / published by Giorgi Kartvelishvili ; illustrated by Mihaly Zichy ; design by Grigol Tatishvili. Facsimile reproduction of the 1888 edition. Publisher's preface by Guram Panjikidze ; art editors Davit Dundua, Vakhtang Menteshashvili.
Tbilisi : "Sabchota Sakartvelo" Publishing House, 1988 (original: Tiflis : I. Martirosiants Press, 1888). 360 pp. : illustrations ; 33 cm.
Hardcover. Print run of 10,000 copies.
Binding good: slight rubbing of the gilt on the front board; small tears at the left and lower edges of the rear board. Text block very good: firm, clean and complete.

Rustaveli's The Knight in the Panther's Skin, the Georgian national epic of the late twelfth and early thirteenth century, found its most celebrated printed form in the edition financed by the philanthropist and industrialist Giorgi Kartvelishvili (1830-1901) and issued in Tiflis in 1888. Its text was established by a commission that included Ilia Chavchavadze, Grigol Orbeliani, Ivane Machabeli, Ioane Meunargia and Akaki Tsereteli, and it is regarded as the first academic edition of the poem. The book was also a landmark of Georgian book art. The Hungarian painter Mihaly Zichy (1827-1906), court artist in St Petersburg and a visitor to Tbilisi, took on the illustrations without payment, and his dramatic full-page compositions set the pictorial canon for the poem for generations. Grigol Tatishvili designed the ornamental frames, initials and covers after motifs of Georgian church art, and a new typeface was prepared for the text. The 1888 original was censored in Tiflis in August 1887 and printed at the I. Martirosiants press. The present volume is the Soviet-period facsimile issued by Sabchota Sakartvelo in 1988 in an edition of 10,000 copies. It reproduces the original title page, gilt-decorated publisher's cloth, colour frontispiece and blue ornamental borders, and carries a new publisher's preface that calls the 1888 edition a bibliographic rarity and one of the finest monuments of Rustaveli studies. It appeals to collectors of Rustaveli, of Zichy and of Georgian book design.