Text Inscribed on the Icons Commissioned by Levan II Dadiani as Legal Documents Providing Grant Support for Holding Agape Services and Agape Meals

Abstract

The article deals with the inscriptions found on silver icons of the 17th century produced on the commission of Levan II Dadiani, the ruler (Principal) of Odishi.  Traditionally, inscriptions are integral to icons, identifying the saint and/or event pictured. They transfer the meaning and intention of the icon. But in our case, these are long texts found on the back side of icons, which contain information about donation with enumeration of obligations to a certain church with the purpose of holding Agape Services and Agape Meals in remembrance of the deceased spouse of Levan II Dadiani regularly.

The study has shown that structurally the icon texts are largely consistent with medieval charter style traditional in Georgia. On the other hand, the majority of these texts lacks the signature of the donator, and some of them lack the date of issuing. Apart from that, I have shown by example of the text inscribed on the back of Tsatchkhuru icon that the texts found on the icons commissioned by Levan II Dadiani were the copies of original charters written on paper.

It is concluded that the texts found on silver icons of the 17th century produced on the commission of Levan II Dadiani actually are legal texts, though they cannot be called donation charters due to inconsistent usage of signature and of the date of issuing, and also because these texts are not originals, but the copies of original charters written on paper.

Several terms in Mengrelian language used in the texts inscribed on the icons are explained at the end of the article.