continued up to 1176 by Gregory the priest. Mechithar (Mekhitar) Kosh (d. 1207) wrote an elegant *Book of Fables, and compiled a *corpus of civil and canon law (partly from Byzantine codes).
In the 13th century the following works or authors are to be noticed:—*history of Kiriakos of Ganzak, which contains much about the Mongols, Georgians and Albanians; *Malakia the monk’s history of the Tatars up to 1272; *Chronicle of Mechithar of Ani (fragmentary); *Vahram’s rhymed chronicle of the kings of Lesser Armenia; *history of the world, by Vartan, up to 1269. In this century mostly falls the redaction of a large fable literature, recently edited in three volumes by Professor Marr of St Petersburg.
14th century: *history of Siunik, by Stephen Orbelian, archbishop of that province 1287–1304; *Sempat’s chronicle of Lesser Armenia (952–1274), carried on by a continuator to 1331; *Mechithar of Airivanq, a chronography; *Hethoum’s account of the Tatars, and chronography of the years 1076–1307. John of Orotn (d. 1388) compiled commentaries on John’s gospel and the Paulines, and wrote homilies and monophysite works; his disciple Gregory of Dathev (b. 1340) compiled a *Summa theologiae called the Book of Questions, in the style of the Summa of Aquinas, which had been translated into Armenian c. 1330, as were a little later the *Summa of Albertus and works of other schoolmen.
15th century: *History of Tamerlane, by Thomas of Medsoph, carried up to 1447.
17th century, Araqel of Tabriz wrote a *history of the Persian invasions of Armenia in the years 1602–1661.
In the above list are not included a number of medical, astrological, calendarial and philological or lexicographic works, mostly written during or since the Cilician or crusading epoch. The hymns used in Armenian worship rarely go back to the 5th century; and they were still few in number and brief in length when Nerses the Graceful and his contemporaries more than doubled their number and bulk in the 12th century. Most Armenian poems embody acrostics, and their poets began to rhyme in the 8th century or thereabouts. Since the 15th century a certain number of profane poets have arisen, whose work is less jejune on the whole than that of the hymn and canticle writers of an earlier age. Gregory Magistros (d. 1058) abridged the whole of the Old and New Testaments in a *rhyming poem, and set a fashion to later writers. Such works as *Barlaam and Josaphat. the *History of the Seven Sages, the *Wisdom of Ahikar, the *Tale of the City of Bronze, were freely turned into verse in the 13th and following centuries.
It will be realized from the above enumeration of works written in each century that Armenian literature was purely monkish. There was no epic or romance literature; although this was not lacking in the contiguous country of Georgia, where there seem to have always been knights and ladies willing to read and keep alive a literature of poetry and narrative, not altogether suitable for monks, and more akin to Persian literature.
Other forms of faith than the orthodox had a hold in Armenia, particularly the Nestorian and the Manichean. Sundry works of Mani were translated in the year 588, but are lost. Perhaps certain works of Diodore of Tarsus survive, but the orthodox monks were so vigilant that there is little chance of finding any other monuments than those of the stereotyped orthodoxy.
The 16th century saw the first books printed in Armenian. A press was set up at Venice in 1565, and the psalms and breviary were printed. In 1584 the Roman propaganda began its issue of Armenian books with a Gregorian calendar. In the 17th century presses were working at Lembourg, Milan, Paris, Isfahan (where in 1640 a large folio of the Lives of the Fathers of the Desert appeared), in Leghorn, Amsterdam (where in 1664 the first edition of the Hymn-book, in 1666 the first Bible, and in 1667 the first Ritual were printed), Marseilles, Constantinople, Leipzig and Padua.
The press which has done most in printing Armenian authors is that of the Mechitharists of Venice. Here in 1836 was issued a magnificent thesaurus of the Armenian language, with the Latin and Greek equivalents of each word. At that time there was no dictionary of any language and literature to be compared with this for exhaustiveness and accuracy. There are now Armenian presses all over the world, reprinting old books or issuing new works, often translations of modern writers, English, French, Russian and German.
The chief collections of old Armenian MSS. are: at the convent of *Echmiadzin at Valarshapat; at Stambul in the library of the fathers of St Anthony; at Venice in the Mechitharist convent of San Lazaro; at the *Mechitharist convent in Vienna; in the *Royal library at Vienna; in the *Paris Bibliothèque Nationale; in the Vatican library; in the British Museum; in the *Bodleian; in the Rylands library; in the *Berlin and *Munich libraries; *in Tübingen; in St Petersburg, and in the *Lazarev institute at Moscow; at New Joulfa, the Armenian suburb of Isfahan. Private collections have been made by Mr Rendel Harris in Birmingham (presented to the university of Leiden); at Parham and elsewhere. A printed catalogue exists of those marked with an asterisk.
Authorities.—F. Combefis, Historia Monothelitarum (Paris, 1648); Arshak Ter Mikelian, Die armen. Kirche, iv. bis zum xiii. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1892); H. Gelzer, “Die Anfänge der armenischen Kirche” in the Berichte der Königlich. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften: Historisch-philologische Classe (1895), p. 171; Gutschmid, Kleine Schriften (Leipzig, 1892), t. iii.; Langlois, Collection d’historiens arméniens (Paris, 1867) (the translations often careless); E. W. Brooks, The Syriac Chronicle known as Zachariah of Mitylene (London, 1899), p. 24; Dulaurier, Recherches sur la chronologie arménienne (Paris, 1859); Agop Manandian, Beiträge zur albanischen Geschichte (Leipzig, 1897); G. Owsepian, Die Entstehungsgeschichte des Monotheletismus (Leipzig, 1897); Cardinal Angelo Mai, Nova SS. patrum bibliotheca, 6 vols. (Rome, 1844–1871), vol. ii. contains Latin version of Armenian canons; Hergenröther, Photius (Regensburg, 1867); Tchamchian, History of Armenia (in Armenian at Venice and English abridged translation entitled M. Chamich by John Audall, Calcutta, 1827); Domini Joannis Onziensis, Opera Latine (Venice, 1834); Nersetis Clajensis, Opera omnia Latine (Venice, 1833); A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus in the Recueil de la société orthodoxe de Palestine (St Petersburg, 1892) (Armenian correspondence with Photius translated); Enthymius Zigabenus, Panoplia, Patrol. Gr. vol. 130, col. 1173; E. Dulaurier, Histoire de l’église armén. (Paris, 1857); le Quien, Oriens christianus; Mansi, Concilia, vol. 25; Steph. Azarian, Ecclesiae Armenae Traditio (Rome, 1870); A. Balgy, Historia doctrinae catholicae inter Armenos (Vienna, 1878); Clemens Galanus, Conciliatio Ecclesiae Armenae cum Romana (Rome, 1690); L. Alishan, Sissouan, contrée de l’Arménie (Venice, 1893), in Armenian, but also in French translation; Recueil d’actes relatifs aux Arméniens (3 vols., Moscow, 1833); St Martin, Mémoires historiques sur l’Arménie (Paris, 1818); V. Langlois, Voyage dans la Cilicie (Paris, 1861); H. G. O. Dwight, Christianity in Turkey (London, 1854); De Damas, Coup d’œil sur l’Arménie (Lyon, 1887); H. F. B. Lynch, Armenia (2 vols., London, 1902); J. Issaverdens, Armenia, Ecclesiastical History (Venice, 1875); E. Dulaurier, Historiens arméniens des Croisades (Paris); Giovanni de Serpos, Compendio Storico (Venice, 1786); Garabed Chahnazarian, Esquisse de l’histoire de l’Arménie (Paris, 1856); Gelzer, “Armenien” in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie (ed. 3, Leipzig, 1897); Hefele, Hist. of Councils, vols. 3 and 9; F. Néve, L’Arménie chrétienne (Paris); P. Hunanian, Histoire des conciles d’Orient (Vienna, 1847); Gr. Chalathianz, Apocryphes (Moscow, 1897), and other works; Brosset, Collection d’historiens arméniens (St Petersburg, 1874), and numerous other works by the same author; J. Catergian, De fidei symbolo quo Armenii utuntur (Vienna, 1893); Ricaut, The present state of the Greek and Armenian Churches (London, 1679); H. Denzinger, Ritus orientalium (Würzburg, 1863); Fred. C. Conybeare, Rituale Armenorum (Oxford, 1905); F. E. Brightman, Eastern Liturgies (Oxford, 1896); P. Vetter, Chosroae magni explicatio missae (Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1880); L. Petit, articles on Armenian religious history, councils, literature, creed and discipline in Diction. de théologie catholique, cols. 1888–1968; F. C. Conybeare, “The Armenian canons of St Sahak” in the American Journal of Theology (Chicago, 1898), p. 828; C. F. Neumann, Geschichte der armenischen Literatur (Leipzig, 1836); Simon Weber, Die katholische Kirche in Armenien (Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1903); Sukias Somal, Quadro della Storia Letteraria di Armenia (Venice, 1829); M. V. Ermoni, “L’Arménie” in Revue de l’orient chrétien (for year 1896); F. Tournebize, “Histoire de l’Arménie” (ib. 1902–3–4–5); R. P. D. Girard, “Les Madag” (ib. for year 1902); H. Hübschmann, Armenische Studien and Grammatik (Leipzig, 1883 and 1895). Grammars by Petermann (in Porta Orientalium Linguarum series), by Prof. Meillet of Paris, by Prof. N. Marr of St Petersburg (in Russian), by Joseph Karst (of the Cilician dialect). Texts of most of the Armenian fathers and historians have been printed by the Mechitharists of San Lazaro, Venice, and are readily procurable at their convent. (F. C. C.)
