Orbeliani is noted in part due to his important role as an emissary of Georgia to France and the Vatican, where he vainly sought assistance on behalf of his beleaguered King Vakhtang VI.

He was brought up at the court of King Giorgi XI and acquired his encyclopedic knowledge in the Great Palace Library.

When he was 20–25 years old he wrote a collection of fables and tales titled Sibrdzne Sitsruisa (A Book of Wisdom and Lies), containing his observations about life.

The reader feels how ably, deliberately and naturally the author weaves together his ideas about the lives of both humans and animals.

Orbeliani was an educator of the King of Kartli Vakhtang VI who was the leader of the movement initiated for an intellectual renaissance in Georgia.

Concrete historical circumstance made the travel of Orbeliani unsuccessful, his attempts to bring Georgia and the states of Western Europe together turned out to be all in vain.

After his return to Kartli Orbeliani actively began trying to spread Catholicism in Georgia, for which the Georgian Orthodox Church persecuted him.