Parjiani’s Gospels simultaneously exude the scent of the Middle Ages, and in parallel bear the features of modern culture, uniting in one the canonical iconography of hand-written religious books with the independent interpretations of the artist. It is incredible that Soviet Georgia allowed the creation of a unique version of the Gospel that has no analogue. Parjiani acts like a copyist of the Medieval Gospels

– a feature he may have inherited from his ancestors of the school of copyists in Svaneti. This is the only occurrence of copying and illustrating the Gospel in Georgian painting since the Middle Ages. This act becomes even more remarkable when we recall that in the Soviet Union, working on the Gospel was dangerous for an artist, and the presentation of such a book remained completely unimaginable in the existing environment at that time.

A facsimile is the technical-mechanical reproduction of a unique, effectively two-dimensional original, which eliminates any manual copying as much as possible,

retains a maximum of the original’s intrinsic and extrinsic criteria,

uses all available technical means that guarantee the original’s preservation and accessibility and thus satisfies scholarly and artistic interests. A facsimile must be as

true to the original as possible for scholarship and bibliophilia.

THE REPRODUCTION  OF A MODERN MASTERPIECE

The word derives from the Latin term: fac simile = make it similar. A facsimile is the faithful reproduction (an exact copy) of a manuscript, or printed book. Faithful reproduction obviously means to display in the facsimile all visible characteristics of the original work – vibrant colours, gold and silver, but also age marks or irregularities. Facsimile books are generally published in worldwide limited editions. Facsimile editions are different, not only because of the perfect technical reproduction and craftsmanship applied to each single item, but also because they capture and convey the spirit and charisma of the original.

To create our editions, we have a specialized an unique working team and we are only using materials of the highest quality – sophisticated and high-grade – to fit the book’s content in the best way possible, but also to honour the intentions of the author: to create unique masterpieces with their impressive art, but also with the most precious  materials.

Time is of the essence – that is why our book projects normally take more than a year: the time-consuming pre-press work, the comparing travels, test printings and corrections even of the smalest differences; the highly sophisticated printing process with metallic applications; the individual cutting of the pages; and finally the binding of each volume and the creation of the boxes, done completely by hand using centuries-old craftsmanship (which especially is time-consuming).

All these parts of our work together allow us to reach the challenging goal we established for every single edition published in our companies: to recreate a single unique masterpiece, of course perfect in a technical way, but even more to catch ideas, visions and atmosphere of the time of the original’s creation, to experience the culture, even to be able to feel the stories behind the artwork.