Reading, Editing and Composing Latin - Palaeography, Liturgy, Academia and Inscriptions

Palaeography: reading manuscripts, registers and charters

Most Latin that reaches us is handwritten - parish registers in the hands of nineteenth-century priests, notarial deeds and charters from the early modern period, letters and inventories in archives, marginalia in printed books - and reading it is a skill separate from knowing Latin. Our palaeographers work with Carolingian, Gothic, humanist and later hands, with the abbreviation systems of ecclesiastical and notarial Latin, and with the damaged, faded and water-stained condition of much archival material. We deliver a diplomatic transcription (letter by letter, abbreviations expanded in brackets) or a normalized transcription as the client needs, followed by a translation, and we mark genuinely illegible passages rather than guess. Georgian archives, the National Center of Manuscripts, university history departments, genealogists and Church institutions use this service, as do foreign researchers working on Georgian and Caucasian material in Latin - Jesuit and Capuchin mission reports, Vatican correspondence, Polish and Lithuanian sources on the Caucasus.

Liturgical and ecclesiastical Latin for the Church in Georgia

The Latin-rite Catholic Church in Georgia uses Latin in the liturgy alongside Georgian, and its parishes, the cathedral in Tbilisi, seminarians and religious communities need liturgical and devotional texts prepared, checked and translated: Mass texts and propers, the Liturgy of the Hours, hymns and chant texts, rites of baptism, marriage and funeral in Latin-Georgian bilingual form, catechetical and theological materials, and the Latin of Church documents from Rome for pastoral use. We work with a specialist in ecclesiastical Latin and Catholic liturgical terminology in Georgian, and we prepare bilingual booklets and orders of service for occasions - episcopal visits, ordinations, jubilees - where both languages are used. Georgian Orthodox and academic institutions studying the Latin Church's history in Georgia use the same specialist for source texts.

Academic Latin: editing, checking and translating scholarly texts

Classical philologists, historians, theologians, lawyers and medievalists at Georgian universities write about Latin texts, quote them, edit them and occasionally write in Latin. We check Latin quotations in articles and theses for accuracy, translate Latin sources for scholars in other fields, edit Latin abstracts and summaries that some European journals and conferences still request, prepare Latin passages for critical editions with apparatus, and translate scholarly Latin - Renaissance and early modern treatises, legal commentaries, scientific works - into Georgian for publication. We also translate Georgian academic texts into Latin where a ceremonial or scholarly occasion calls for it, and we advise on Latin style, from Ciceronian to Neo-Latin.

Mottos, dedications, inscriptions and ceremonial Latin

Georgian universities, schools, courts, companies, military units and families ask for Latin that will be carved, cast, printed on diplomas or worn on a crest: institutional mottos, building and monument inscriptions, dedications and plaques, diploma and certificate texts, seals and coats of arms, memorial inscriptions, and ceremonial formulas for academic and civic occasions. Bad Latin on a building is permanent, so we compose in correct classical or ecclesiastical style as the context requires, check every text with a second philologist, provide the meaning and a pronunciation guide, and advise on the conventions of Latin capitals, ligatures and abbreviations for stone and metal. We also translate existing Latin mottos and inscriptions - on Georgian buildings, in foreign universities' seals, on coins and medals - and explain their sources.

Latin for museums, archaeology and heritage

Georgia's Roman and Latin heritage is real: the fort at Gonio-Apsaros, the Roman inscriptions and stamped tiles of Mtskheta and Armazi, Latin epitaphs and dedications in the Tbilisi Catholic cemetery and churches, Latin inscriptions on medieval and early modern objects, and the Latin of European travelers' and missionaries' accounts of Georgia. Museums, archaeological expeditions and heritage bodies use our philologists to read, transcribe, translate and interpret inscriptions, to prepare bilingual exhibition labels and catalogs, and to translate Latin sources for publication. We work from photographs, squeezes and drawings, and on site when an inscription must be read in place.

Latin teaching materials, and how to commission Latin work

Schools, universities and seminaries in Georgia teaching Latin need textbooks, readers, grammars and exam materials adapted or translated into Georgian, and we prepare these with philologists who have taught the language. To commission palaeography, send the best images you have with any context - the archive, the period, the type of document - and we quote after a first look. For composition, tell us the occasion, the medium, the length and the tone, and we propose two or three versions with explanations. For liturgical and academic work, send the text and the purpose. Palaeography and composition are quoted individually; academic editing per page; liturgical booklets per project. Nothing goes to the stonemason, the printer or the journal without a second Latinist's check.

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