catalogue

This is one of the good examples of comprehensive presentation of a small part of Armenian heritage in one of the European cities, where Armenian Catholic Congregation of Mechitarists have established their presence since 18th century.

From the preface of the book

More than a century has passed since the day when the first volume of theCatalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts of the Mekhitarist Library in Vienna appeared. It was excellently prepared by the eminent Armenologist, member of the congregation Father Yakovbos Dashian. After a long interval of about 70 years, the congregation got the opportunity to publish the second impressive volume of the work compiled by Father Hamazasp Oskian. Finally, another 20 years passed until the Catalogue was completed by Father Augustinus Szekula. This three-volume imposing work has often been recognized in Armenological literature as one of the most perfect Armenian manuscript catalogues ever published. 

Most of the material presented here (old guard-leaves of manuscripts or separate fragments) is referred to by the authors of the Viennese Catalogue. They have provided brief data about them, sometimes citing longer or shorter passages. What we have attempted to do is to give a bit more information about those fragments, with their bilingual (Armenian and English) description and complete transcription of the texts.

The fragments are presented in the following way. If they are guard-leaves of manuscripts, we have indicated, according to the Catalogue, the number of the given manuscript (in the case of single fragments, their numbers), its title, date, place, number of folios, material and dimensions, the name of the scribe (as well as of the painter or binder, if known) and of the patron. Then, after the description of the fragments, a separate table specifies the text they contain, the script and the number of columns (1 or 2), the material and the dimensions of the fragments (the size of the guard-leaves sometimes does not coincide with the manuscript).

Every fragment is presented with its photograph.

The links for acquisition http://booksfromarmenia.com/item.php?item_id=911

The book is composed by Gohar Muradyan and Aram Topchyan.

The publication of the book is initiated by the Manuscript Center "Vestigia" at Graz University (head – Erich Renhart) in cooperation with publishing house "Ankyunacar".