Shota Rustaveli’s „Knight in the Tiger’s Skin“ is regarded as the national epic of the Georgians. As a work of the early 13th century, it connects in an impressive way ideas of Christian Orthodoxy with elements of ancient Greek philosophy and the Islamic culture of Persia. The German adaptation of 1955 by Hugo Huppert, reprinted in the present edition, attempts to render the style and content of the epic as closely as possible. The volume is decorated with 54 illuminations from the 17th-18th century manuscript S-5006 of the National Centre for Manuscripts, Tbilisi, which exhibit strong influences of Persian models in their filigreed design.

The descendant of a noble family, Ilia Tschawtschawadse, who was an author, banker and a publicist, is considered as the „Father of the Nation“. As one of the first after the Russian Colonization, he studied in St. Petersburg, brought back progressive ideas and – with a critical look at the backwardness and lethargy in his homeland – he became its active promoter. He apportioned his property among the bondslaves, founded a society for the spreading of the literacy among Georgians, the bank of the nobility, journals, the dramaturgic society and the historic-ethnographic Society of Georgia. His literary works reflect the diversity of the Georgian society in the 19th century.