Russian-born Georgian historian and genealogist (1913-1997)
Cyril Leo Toumanoff (
Russian: Кирилл Львович Туманов; 13 October 1913 – 4 February 1997) was a Russian-born Georgian historian and
genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval
Georgia,
Armenia,
Iran and the
Byzantine Empire. His works have significantly influenced the
Western scholarship of the medieval
Caucasus.[1]
Family
Cyril Toumanoff was born in
Saint Petersburg into a family of the military officer of the Russian army. His father's ancestors came of the princely family of
Tumanishvili (Tumanov) from Georgia,[2] whose ancestors had emigrated from their original homeland in
Cilician Armenia in the 15th century.[1] This family is on the list of the Georgian princes that was attached to the
Treaty of Georgievsk concluded between the Georgian king
Erekle II and the Russian empress
Catherine II in 1783. On December 6, 1850, the Tumanishvili were officially enrolled on the
Russian Empire's
list of Georgian princely families as
knyaz Tumanov.[3] Toumanoff's mother, Elizabeth Zhdanova, was a descendant of a number of Russian noble families, with genealogical ties with the Western European nobility.[1]
Toumanoff earned a doctorate from the
Georgetown University in 1943 and soon accepted a position there which he held until his retirement as a
professor emeritus of history in 1970. Thereafter he moved to Rome.[1] An authority on nobiliary and dynastic questions, Toumanoff was also a Professed Knight of the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta, High Historical Consultant, Grand Magistry,[4] and the Grand Prior of
Bohemia.[1] Having taken religious orders he became known as Fra Cyril.
Toumanoff died in 1997 in
Rome at the age of 83.[1] He is buried at the chapel of the Knights of Malta at
Campo Verano, Rome.[5]
Bibliography
"On the Relationship between the Founder of the Empire of Trebizond and the Georgian Queen Thamar", Speculum 15 (1940).
"Medieval Georgian Historical Literature (VIIth-XVth Centuries)", Traditio 1 (1943).
"Chronology of the Early Kings of Iberia", Traditio 25 (1969).
The Order of Malta and the Russian Empire (Rome, 1969) with Olgerd de Sherbowitz-Wetzor.
"The Mamikonids and the Liparitids", Armeniaca Venise (1969).
"The Third-Century Armenian Arsacids: A chronological and Genealogical Commentary", Revue des Études Arméniennes 6 (1969): 233-281.
"Caucasia and Byzantium", Traditio 27 (1971)
(in French) "L’Ordre de Malte dans l’Empire de Russie : Grand-Prieuré Catholique de Russie", Rivista Araldica (maggio-giugno 1973)
(in French)Manuel de généalogie et de chronologie pour l’histoire de la Caucasie chrétienne (Arménie, Géorgie, Albanie) (Rome: Aquila, 1976).
(in French) "Aransahikides ou Haykides? Derniers rois de Siounie", Handes Amsorya (1976)
(in French)Catalogue de la Noblesse titrée de l’Empire de Russie (Rome, 1982).
(in French)Les Maisons Princières Géorgiennes de l’Empire de Russie (Rome, 1983).
"The Albanian Royal Succession", Le Muséon 97 (1984).
The Social Myth: Introduction to Byzantinism (Rome: Viella, 1984).
"Heraclids and the Arsacids", Revue des Études Arméniennes 19 (1985).
"Problems of Aransahikid Genealogy", Le Muséon 98 (1985).
(in French)Les dynasties de la Caucasie chrétienne de l’Antiquité jusqu’au XIXe siècle ; Tables généalogiques et chronologiques, *Rome, 1990).
References
^
abcdefghiRobert H. Hewsen. "In Memoriam: Cyril Toumanoff." Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies. Vol. 8, 1995, 5–7.
^Rapp, Stephen H. (2003), Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts, p. 16. Peeters Bvba,
ISBN90-429-1318-5.
For the present investigation no single scholar's body of work has had a greater impact than that of Cyril Toumanoff (1913 -1997). Born in St. Peterburg of an old Armeno-Georgian noble house (Tumanian, Tumanishvili), Toumanoff emigrated to the United States in 1928. He went on to earn his doctorate from Georgetown University in 1943 and immediately accepted a position there, holding it until his retirement in 1970
^Любимов С.В. Титулованные роды Российской империи: Опыт подробного перечисления всех титулованных российских дворянских фамилий, с указанием происхождения каждой фамилии, а также времени получения титула и утверждения в нем / Гос. публ. ист. б-ка России. – М.: ФАИР-ПРЕСС, 2004. с. 368
^McHugh, Rosita (1996), The Knights of Malta: 900 years of care, p. xix. Irish Association of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta,
ISBN0-9525810-0-0.
^(in Russian) А. А. Шумков, М. Ю. Медведев (1997), Дворянский календарь: справочная родословная книга российского дворянства, т. 4, с. 102. Санкт-Петербургское Дворянское Собрание.