Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, freedom of speech, information access, and more
Robert Bedrosian writes to say that he has created a new collection of Armenian patristic materials on his website here. In this he is rather too modest. It is a cornucopia of PDF’s of Armenian materials. Anyone who has ever tried to locate an Armenian edition of an ancient text will know that it is [...]
An email in the ABTAPL list raised a very interesting question. In the IVP Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, in the volume on Hebrews, there is an excerpt from Ephraim the Syrian. Looking at the reference, we find this: Marco Conti, trans. Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. Works of Ephrem in Armenian. ACCS translation [...]
Via Paleojudaica I learn of an interesting article on the PanArmenian website. PanARMENIAN.Net – Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at St. John’s University completed a manuscript preservation project in the Middle East shortly before the violence worsened in Syria, sctimes.com reports. “This was our last current project in Syria, and we had done actually a [...]
In my last post, I mentioned the existence of an Armenian catena on Acts, published in Venice in 1839, and evidently of interest for the study of the so-called ‘Western’ text of Acts. Since then I have been attempting to locate a copy online, or, indeed, to determine its title. This is no easy task, [...]
I’m still looking for Eznik Petrosyan’s book on Armenian bible commentaries. I have now found somewhere online where this item is available. My interest is in catenas, of course. The book is published by the Armenian Bible Society, who have a website. It’s here. Bibliography of Armenian Biblical Commentaries ( Bishop Yeznik Petrossian & Armen [...]
My learned Armenian correspondant Seda Stamboltsyan has been looking in the electronic catalogue of the Matenadaran at Yerevan for us. She reports at least one Armenian catena in the catalogue, which includes material by Eusebius. Doing so was not entirely straightforward, as the search tool is somewhat cranky. You have to get the exact word correct — searching [...]
I’m still trying to find out about Armenian catenas and biblical commentaries. It seems that there are not many references to books in Armenian on the net. Apparently the Mesrop Mashtots Matenadaran, the Institute of Old Manuscripts, Yerevan (not the same as the Armenian National Library) has a new website. Unfortunately it is only in [...]
The catalogue of Armenian manuscripts at the French National Library tells an interesting story of how the pre-revolution holdings were assembled. It all starts when Francis I of France entered into a treaty with the Grand Turk, and established a permanent ambassador in Constantinople. This opened the Turkish state to French scholars in search of [...]
My queries to professional Armeniologists have gone unanswered, doubtless because they are very busy. But I am still interested to learn whether there are catenas on the gospels in Armenian. A thought struck me last night. Suppose that none have been published? Where could we find catenas? The answer, surely, is to start looking at [...]
I’m having another attempt to locate any Armenian fragments of the Gospel Problems and Solutions of Eusebius. There must be professors of Armenian who know where these might be found. All I have to do is ask. As a first shot, I’ve written to Theo van Lint, who is Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies at [...]