Mihai or Mihail Iștvanovici (Cyrillic: Мiхаи Iщвановичь,See facsimile in Ghibu, p. 248 , ), also known as Ișvanovici, Iștanovici, Ștefanovici or Stepaneshvili (სტეფანეშვილი; ), was a Wallachian typographer, letter cutter, typeface designer, Eastern Orthodox clergyman and poet, mainly noted for his work in the Kingdom of Kartli (modern-day Georgia). His early life is entirely obscure, but possibly tied to the Transylvanian Principality, and his surname has been read by some authors as indicative of a more or less distant Hungarian origin—though his presumed father was a Serb. His debut as a printer was registered at Snagov Monastery, outside the Wallachian capital of Bucharest, but in 1699 he was active at Alba Iulia in Transylvania. Sent there by the Wallachian prince Constantin Brâncoveanu, who reinforced links with the Transylvanian Romanians, Iștvanovici put out the first-ever textbook in the Romanian language. He disappeared from Transylvanian records soon after, possibly due to increased pressures for a communion with Rome—which Brâncoveanu and Iștvanovici opposed.
In 1706, Iștvanovici was at Râmnicu Vâlcea, a printer and a subdeacon in service to the Wallachian Orthodox Metropolis. He had direct access to Metropolitan Anthim the Iberian, who was himself an engraver and printer; when Kartlian King Vakhtang VI asked for an expert typographer, Anthim selected Iștvanovici. The latter went on to establish the first printing press in Tbilisi and all of Georgia, which is traditionally dated to October 1709, and, alongside a group of Georgian or Romanian "servants", printed books using Georgian letters of his own design; his 1709 version of the Gospel includes a Romanian poem in Georgian script. Iștvanovici accomplished these feats in only three years, after which he left for the County of Holland, where he was to undergo further training. Scholars propose that he either died there, or that he returned to spend his later life in either Wallachia or Transylvania.
Biography Origins and related disputes According to a 1699 record in his own hand, the printer was a Wallachian subject.L. Rus, "Tribuna Literară. Un tipograf literat. 'Evanghelia învățătoare' de la Bĕlgrad an. 1688 și Mihaiu Iștvanovici, tipograful din Ungro-Vlachia. II", in Tribuna, Vol. XVI, Issue 192, September 1899, p. 769Haiman, p. 226 His surname Iștvanovici, later Georgianized as "Stepaneshvili", was in fact a patronymic, indicating that his father was named Stephen (Ștefan in Romanian, István in Hungarian).Haiman, pp. 221, 227 Historian and designer György Haiman suggests that the spelling Iștvanovici, which is unusual in Romanian, may attest that the family had Hungarian origins, but had moved to Wallachia "at one time".Haiman, p. 227. See also Ecsedy, p. 171 Another scholar, Vano Imelishvili, similarly described him and Miklós Tótfalusi Kis as "Hungarian printers" with similar roles in the development of Georgian type.Vano Imelishvili, "Magyarok Grúziában és grúzok Magyarországon", in Acta Hungarica, Vols. IV–V, 1993–1994, p. 89 In his 1986 book of travels, Eugen Lumezianu proposed that Iștvanovici was a Hungarian, though his stance on this issue was deplored by literary critic Theodor Codreanu.Theodor Codreanu, "Viața cărților. Ironia peregrinului", in Luceafărul, Vol. XXX, Issue 36, September 1987, p. 2
Several authors have traditionally argued that Mihai's birthplace was in the Transylvanian Principality (Hungarian-ruled, and located to the north of Wallachia). In 1915, scholar Nicolae Iorga surmised that Mihai was a member of the Romanian-speaking corps within Hungarian nobility, with his origins in "Fogaras".Nicolae Iorga, Histoire des Roumains de Transylvanie et de Hongrie. I, p. 372. Bucharest: Gutenberg & Joseph Göbl Successeurs, 1915 Another researcher, Alexandru Ligor, proposes the same Transylvanian-origin theory, but notes that his apprenticeship was completed at Snagov, in southern Wallachia.Alexandru Ligor, "Cartea veche laică tipărită în limba română și unitatea poporului de la Carpați, Dunăre și Mare", in Revista Muzeelor și Monumentelor, Issue 4/1988, p. 65 Art historian Cornel Tatai-Baltă hypothesizes that Mihai's father was a printer from the Transylvanian capital of Alba Iulia, who had contributed to a version of the Gospel.Cornel Tatai-Baltă, "Tipografia de la Alba Iulia", in Vatra, Vol. XXVIII, Issue 346, January 2000, p. 42 Historian and bibliophile Pál Binder wrote in 1974 that Ștefan, who "we are led to believe, is the father of the famous printer Mihail", was a Wallachian Serb ultimately hailing from Ohrid.Binder, pp. 246–247 In her 1994 overview of Romanian scholarship, Judit Ecsedy validated this account, including the Serb origin, and located Iștvanovici's birthplace in Alba Iulia. She further remarks a consensus among Romanian historians, namely that Mihai was born between 1648 and 1651.Ecsedy, p. 170
The young man had some training in languages, and was able to read and write in Greek.Ștrempel, p. 428 Historian Onisifor Ghibu was not aware of any documents regarding Iștvanovici's schooling, simply noting that, by 1699, he appeared to have been "outstandingly competent and endowed with a churchly culture that is rare among printers" (din cale afară de iscusit și înzestrat cu o cultură bisericească neobișnuită la alți tipografi).Ghibu, p. 33 According to Ecsedy, Iștvanovici first took up printing in Bucharest with the Georgian-born carver, Anthim the Iberian, who was also a religious scholar.Ecsedy, p. 171 Iștvanovici's contribution at Snagov includes a liturgy for the Feast of Constantine and Helen, with an engraved image of the two saints that he later reused in his Transylvanian books.Ecsedy, p. 171; Eva Mârză, "Propuneri pentru cercetarea tipurilor de litere și motivelor decorative în cartea românească veche", in Transilvania, Issues 6–7/2015, p. 9. See also Ghibu, pp. 248–249 The item was closely modeled on a fresco inside Bucharest's Metropolitan Church.Ghibu, pp. 248–249 Overseen by Anthim, who was Snagov's Hegumen (and whose skills, Ecsedy notes, were closely replicated by the younger apprentice),Ecsedy, p. 171 the liturgy was completed on 6 February 1696.Ștrempel, pp. xi–xii Medievalist Ivan Biliarsky records the work as Iștvanovici's personal gift to the reigning Wallachian Prince, Constantin Brâncoveanu, containing his "eulogy for the sovereign and his power."Biliarsky, pp. 160–161
Transylvanian career Soon after this milestone in his career, Iștvanovici settled in Alba Iulia. As literary historian Gabriel Ștrempel notes, this was in 1697, explaining why the printing activity at Snagov was greatly reduced beginning that year.Ștrempel, pp. xiii, 419 Brâncoveanu was seeking to contain the spread of Eastern Catholicism among Romanians. The threat against the very existence of a Transylvanian Orthodox Metropolis had been rendered acute with the region's conquest by the Habsburg monarchy, ending the Great Turkish War. As argued by historian Nicolae Cartojan, Iștvanovici and David Corbea were sent in not just to print books, but also to "revise [them] in the Orthodox sense".Cartojan, p. 155 Ecsedy adds that Iștvanovici was called upon because the Orthodox master printer of Alba Iulia, Chiriac Moldoveanul, had died in or around 1696.Ecsedy, p. 170
In 1699, Iștvanovici put out a Transylvanian Chiriacodromion and Bucoavnă. The latter appeared in summer,Sipos, p. 49 and was partly sponsored by magistrate István Kisfaludi.Ghibu, p. 32; Silași, p. 81 It was also the first-ever textbook to be published in the Romanian language.Ecsedy, p. 171; Ghibu, pp. 32, 247; Sipos, pp. 49–50 Researchers such as Ghibu note its close resemblance to earlier primers and catechisms in Church Slavonic, and believe that Iștvanovici himself may have translated and reproduced these models.Ecsedy, p. 171; Ghibu, pp. 33–35, 247–248 Specifically, Ghibu highlights the similarities between Bucoavnă and Meletius Smotrytsky's book of grammar, Грамматіки славєнскиѧ правилноє Сvнтаґма, noting its linguistic and "markedly Orthodox" ideological purism: "it has not one trait in common with Western didactic literature."Ghibu, pp. 33–34 Himself an Eastern Catholic Protopope, Grigore Silași saw Bucoavnă as making a point of repeating its commitment to Orthodoxy, concluding that Metropolitan Atanasie Anghel felt himself pressured by adversaries of his "poor Romanian nation".Silași, p. 82 This generic line is contradicted on one point by the anomalous sampling of the Athanasian Creed, which was generally shunned by many Eastern Orthodox theologians—though, as Ghibu notes, it had already been reproduced in Slavonic primers, and had been at least partly endorsed by the catechist Petro Mohyla in the 17th century.Ghibu, pp. 247–248 In noting this trait, Ghibu explicitly contradicts earlier commentators, including Iorga and Aron Densușianu, who had read Bucoavnă as a sample of semi-Catholic literature.Ghibu, pp. 34, 248–249
Chiriacodromion appeared as an updated version of Varlaam Moțoc's Homiliary, with the specification: tipărită mai luminat în limba românească ("printed in a more enlightened Romanian language").Colta, p. 41 As Iștvanovici attests in his preface to it, he had been invited by the local Romanian Orthodox community, with blessings from Brâncoveanu.Haiman, p. 226; Ștrempel, p. xiii He also notes that this was because "there being at this time no artisan trained in the art of typography for our Romanian kin, here in Transylvania" (neîntâmplându-se de această dată neamului nostru românesc, aici în Ardeal, meșter pentru lucrul tipografiei). As he asserts therein, Brâncoveanu was patronușul cel adevărat al Sfintei Mitropolii [a Ardealului] ("the real-life patron of the Holy Metropolis [of Transylvania]").Colta, p. 41; Ghibu, p. 32 The work became widely circulated among Romanians in both Transylvania and the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary, with copies reaching Gyula and Apateu.Colta, pp. 41–42 Slavist Dan Horia Mazilu proposes that there were only "insignificant additions" to Varlaam's text, which was found useful for a "a Romaniandom now 'under pressure' from Catholicism".Dan Horia Mazilu, "Cazania lui Varlaam – 350 de ani. Cea mai însemnată carte românească din secolul al XVII-lea", in România Literară, Issue 24/1993, p. 15
No other Transylvanian books appeared with Iștvanovici credited as a printer. The reason for his apparent absence is unknown, but scholar L. Rus proposes that he may have been dragged into a conflict with the church leadership, at a time when Metropolitan Atanasie and other Transylvanian clergymen were increasingly accepting of communion with Rome. Ghibu also writes that, "in 1700, once the union [of churches] had been sealed, [and] understanding that there was no reason for him to carry on in Transylvania, he made his way back to Wallachia".Ghibu, p. 33 A similar explanation is provided by Ecsedy. As she notes, the cause of Orthodoxy "seemed hopeless in 1699. Due to political developments, it was not possible to publish further Orthodox literature in Cyrillic. [Brâncoveanu] had no interest in supporting publications prepared in the spirit of the union with the Catholics, so Istvanovics was presumably recalled."Ecsedy, p. 174