Below is a note found in my copy of ქართულ-რუსულ-ჶრანციცული ლექსიკონი by დავით ჩუბინაშვილი, published in 1840. With help from my friend დათო, here is the result of our (mostly his) decipherment.

ეს წინგი შემთხვევით ვიყიდე საკო-
მისიო მაღაზიაში 172 მანეთად, ყდაში მივეცი
40 მან., ამგვარად სულ დამიჯდა 212 მანეთი.

I bought this book by chance¹ in the commi-
ssary shop for 172 roubles, (for it to be) in a binding I gave
40 roub.², therefore altogether I paid 212 roubles.³

ფ. ი. რურუა

P. I. Rurua

1946 წლის 26/?⁴

1946 26/?

(1) შემთხვევით can be "accidentally" or "by chance". Given that one does not usually buy a book accidentally, I assume what is meant is that the person did not deliberately go out to buy it.

(2) I don't have confirmation this is the case here, but in older book-buying traditions, one would pay a price for the textblock (i.e. contents of the book) and then pay an additional cost for a cover (given that it could be plain or fancy at the buyer's desire). I presume this is such a situation.

(3) Nearest I can tell, this was ~ $7.50 in USD at the time, or maybe about $75 now. Not a bad deal.

(4) It is not clear which month this is, guesses are maybe მაი (May) or მარტი (March).

Last Updated: 2022-09-10 23:46:55