Latin-Georgian Translation Services in Tbilisi - Church Records, Diplomas, Canon Law and the Latin That Still Runs the World

Why a translation bureau in Tbilisi needs Latinists

Latin arrives at our office more often than most people would guess, and almost always attached to something that matters. A Georgian applying for Polish, Lithuanian or Italian citizenship by descent needs a great-grandparent's baptismal record translated from the Latin of a nineteenth-century parish register. A graduate of Harvard, Yale, Leiden, Uppsala, Coimbra or a Hungarian medical university holds a diploma written entirely in Latin that the Georgian recognition center cannot read. A Georgian Catholic marrying in the Latin rite, or seeking an annulment, deals with documents from the Apostolic Administration of the Caucasus and the Roman Rota. A Georgian exporter's phytosanitary certificate lists species in Latin binomials that customs officers must match. A pharmacist reads a prescription abbreviated in Latin; a lawyer drafts a clause around a Latin maxim; an archaeologist at Gonio-Apsaros or Mtskheta needs a Roman inscription read.

Our Latin team consists of classical philologists trained at Tbilisi State University and European faculties, with specialists in ecclesiastical Latin, medieval palaeography, medical and pharmaceutical Latin and Roman law, registered with the notary at David Agmashenebeli Ave 117. Latin translations are notarized, apostilled and, where the Church requires it, certified through the diocesan chancery, exactly like any other language pair, and we translate between Latin and Georgian, English, Italian, German, French and Russian as the document and destination require.

What we translate from and into Latin

• Ecclesiastical records: baptismal, marriage, confirmation and burial entries from Catholic parish registers (liber baptizatorum, liber matrimoniorum), certificates issued by dioceses, canonical marriage documents, annulment decrees, dispensations, letters of good standing for clergy, seminary and pontifical university documents, and papal and curial documents.
• Academic documents: diplomas and degree certificates issued in Latin by universities in the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavia, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, the Baltic states and elsewhere, honorary doctorates, Latinum and Graecum certificates, and academic transcripts with Latin honors.
• Medical, pharmaceutical and scientific Latin: prescriptions and pharmacopoeial texts, anatomical and clinical nomenclature, botanical and zoological binomials on phytosanitary, veterinary and CITES certificates and product labels, and taxonomic descriptions.
• Legal and historical Latin: Roman law and canon law texts, Latin maxims and clauses in contracts and judgments, medieval and early modern charters and deeds, and inscriptions, coins and seals.
• Into Latin: mottos, dedications, diplomas, inscriptions, liturgical texts and academic ceremonial for Georgian universities, institutions and families.

How Latin documents are certified and legalized

Latin documents belong to whichever authority issued them, and that determines the legalization route. A Latin diploma from a Dutch or American university is apostilled in the Netherlands or the United States like any diploma from that country; a Latin parish register extract from Poland or Lithuania is certified by the diocesan chancery and then, for civil use, apostilled by the state authority that recognizes church records; a document from the Holy See, which is not a Hague Apostille member, is legalized through the Vatican Secretariat of State and the apostolic nunciature, since no apostille exists for it. Once the legalized original reaches Tbilisi, our translation is notarized by the Georgian notary for Georgian authorities, and for Church use the translation can be certified by the chancery of the Apostolic Administration of the Caucasus. Documents going the other way - Georgian civil or church records translated into Latin for a diocese, a tribunal or a pontifical university - are notarized here and apostilled or, for the Holy See, legalized through the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the nunciature. We know which route applies to each document and tell you at the first contact.

Pricing and turnaround for Latin translation

Latin is priced per document rather than per page for most work, because a baptismal entry is five lines of difficult script and a diploma is one ornate page, and per 1,800-character page for longer texts such as canonical decrees, academic articles and historical documents. Palaeographic work on handwritten registers carries a supplement that depends on the script and condition. Notary fees, apostille and legalization fees and chancery certification are itemized separately.

• Latin diploma or degree certificate: same day, notarized.
• Parish register extract or diocesan certificate: same day or next day, depending on the script.
• Canonical marriage or annulment file: 2-5 business days.
• Phytosanitary or pharmaceutical nomenclature check: same day.
• Inscriptions, charters, historical documents: quoted individually after we see the material.

Ordering, and who our Latin clients are

Clients send a photo or scan on WhatsApp or email and receive a quote within 15 minutes; for handwritten registers we ask for the highest resolution image available, both pages of an opening, and any index or margin notes. Diplomas and certificates are translated from a photo and the notary works from the apostilled original when you bring it to Agmashenebeli 117, near Marjanishvili Metro. Our Latin clients are Georgians pursuing EU citizenship by descent through Catholic ancestors in Poland, Lithuania, Italy and Hungary; graduates of Latin-diploma universities working or seeking recognition in Georgia; Georgian Catholics and the Apostolic Administration; universities, museums and archaeological expeditions; exporters and customs brokers dealing with species names; pharmacists, physicians and lawyers; and families and institutions who want a motto, a dedication or a diploma in proper Latin.

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