Abstract

The author investigates Rome’s unexpected role in early Georgian printing, tracing how missionary and scholarly networks produced the first Georgian works in the 17th century. Focusing on Niceforo Irbachi’s collaboration with Stefano Paolini (the 1629 Dittionario giorgiano e italiano) and Francesco Maria Maggio’s 1670 grammar, the research uses archival and textual evidence to show these publications were philological tools of diplomacy and missionary strategy. The study argues that Roman printers and clerical patrons facilitated cross‑regional knowledge exchange, preserved dialectal forms and scripts, and left lasting linguistic records that connect Georgian cultural history with early modern European networks.