The Armenian Manuscripts Illuminated By Mesrop Xizanc'i fRom the Matenadaran Collection

Abstract

This article presents a catalogue of the manuscripts from the Matenadaran Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts repository (Yerevan) written and illuminated by the scribe and miniaturist Mesrop Xizanc'i, an outstanding though not yet widely appreciated artist of the first half of the 17th century active in New Julfa (Isfahan). As a result of seven years of investigation, I have identified fortyfive manuscripts of this master among fifteen collections housed in the eleven countries:' the Monastic Libraries of the Congregation of Mekhitarists (Vienna, Venice), the British Library (London), the Bodleian Library (Oxford), the Chester Beatty Library (Dublin), the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Berlin), theJ. Paul Getty Museum (Los-Angeles), the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg), the Institute of Manuscripts of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (Tbilisi), the Monastic Library of the Holy Ejmiajin (Valarsapat), the Church of the Holy Forty Martyrs (Aleppo), the Monastery of the Holy Saviour (Isfahan), the Armenian Patriarchate Library of the Monastery of St. James Jerusalem), the private collection of H. Martikian (San Francisco), and finally an anonymous private collection (London?). Eight Gospels and a codex History of the Great World Conqueror, Alexander of Macedon illustrated by Mesrop are located in the Matenadaran. The general catalogues of the Matenadaran included exact data for only six manuscripts which were embellished, written and repaired by Mesrop Xizanc'i (Gospels nn0 222,