Mihail Ștefan (Mikhail Stepanishvili) and the Emergence of Georgian Printing: New Archival Evidence

Abstract The emergence of the Georgian printing press in the early 18 th century is closely linked to the activities of Mihail Ştefan, also known as Mihail I5tvanovici or Stepanishvili/Stepanov, a typographer of Greek-Wallachian origin who worked in Tbilisi for the Georgian King Vakhtang VI between 1709 and 1711. Drawing on newly identified archival materials from Moscow, this essay reassesses the role of artisans and their networks in the development of print culture within the Orthodox Christian East. The connections linking Wallachia, Tbilisi, Moscow, and Western European centres such as Amsterdam highlight the circulation of technical expertise and typographic materials across a broad transregional space. Archival evidence from Moscow dated to 1712 and 1714 sheds new light on the final years of Mihail Ştefan’s life, as well as on his involvement in the interconnected printing enterprises in Wallachia, Georgia, and Moscow.