The foundation of the first Georgian printing house in Georgia is associated with King Vakhtang VI.

The foundation of the first Georgian printing house in Georgia is associated with King Vakhtang VI. In 1708-1709, he invited Mihai Ishtvanovich from Bulgaria to run the printing house. He was a pupil of Antimoz Iverieli, who had worked in Wallachia (Romania), had been abducted from Georgia as a child and sold as a slave, and was successful in a foreign country as an enlightener , clergyman, and organiser of a printing house. He sent the king the necessary equipment and materials to set up a printing press, and the first Georgian printing press was established in Tbilisi.
n 1709 a four-volume book, the Book of Psalms (David's psalms), was printed in this printing house for the first time in Georgia, and in 1712 "The Knight in the Panther’s Skin" was printed with Vakhtang VI's comments. in 1723, the printing house was closed due to the Ottoman invasion and reopened in 1745 under the reign of King Erekle II. In 1879-80, more than 20 printing houses were operating in Batumi, only a few of which were characterised by their size, technical equipment and production culture. Among them, the topographical houses of Makharadze, Khvingia, Tavartkiladze and Shmaevski are worth mentioning. According to incomplete data , a total of 316 books were printed here, 116 of which were in Georgian. Magazines and newspapers published in Batumi were printed here.

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