Saturday 6 December 2008New study vividly brings to life sixteen centuries of Armenian history

Published by the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin in association with London-based fine art publisher D Giles Limited, The Armenians: Art, Culture and Religion is a new and excitingly accessible study of the Armenian people and their history as seen through Armenian art, literature, language and religion from the 5th to the early 20th century

The principal essay, written by leading experts Nira and Michael Stone, is strikingly illustrated with a wide range of contextual images, with colour plates of over 20 rare Armenian illuminated manuscripts from the Chester Beatty Library’s internationally renowned collection. These feature together with images of leading historic monuments and sites from Armenian history.

Taking as its starting point the collection of Armenian illuminated manuscripts in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, The Armenians: Art, Religion and Culture tells the history of the Armenian people, their art and literature. These are intrinsically linked to Armenia’s religious, ecclesiastical and liturgical traditions, which have developed independently from both Catholic and Orthodox churches since the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (now a suburb of Istanbul) in 451, and which today are more in doctrinal accord with the family of five other Oriental Orthodox Churches namely the Syrian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Eritrean and Indian.

In their clear and accessible style, the Stones tell the story of Armenian landscape, people, Armenian Christianity, language and writing, from the time when the Arsacid Armenian dynasty ended in 428 and the first Armenian kingdom was divided into Greater Armenia, to the East, under Iranian rule, and Lesser Armenia, to the West, under the Byzantine Empire, through the cultural renaissance of the New Julfa Armenians during the 17th century – the single largest concentration of Armenian manuscripts in the Chester Beatty Library dates from this period – to the Armenian genocide of 1915-1917 and its impact on the Armenian Diaspora.

The Stones draw on a wide range of comparative and contextual material, including 40 colour images of key monuments and sites from Armenian history, engravings and contemporary religious ceremonies.

The text is augmented by a further five special pull-out boxes, each of which studies a particular event, such as the fall of the great city of Ani as the result of Mongol raids in the thirteenth century and a subsequent devastating earthquake in 1319, and the Battle of Avarayr against the Persian Sasanians in 451. Both events were the subject of poems and works from Armenian literature for centuries, excerpts and abstracts from which are included, in the case of Ani a late lament by the poet Grigor Oshakants‘i c.1756-1798. Appendices on the Armenian language and alphabet, a timeline of key historical events and a glossary of artistic terms complete this major contribution to the understanding of the Armenian people and history.

The Authors:
Dr. Nira Stone is Lecturer in the Departments of History of Art and Armenian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specializing in Early Christian and Byzantine Art and Armenian Art of the Middle Ages. Recent publications include The Kaffa Lives of the Desert Fathers: A Study in Armenian Manuscript Illumination (Leuven, 1997). Professor Michael Stone is Professor of Armenian Studies and Gail Levin de Nur Professor of Religious Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Recent publications include The Armenians in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, with R.R. Ervine and Nira Stone (eds.), Hebrew University Armenian Studies, 4 (Leuven, 2002) and a poetic translation of the epic Adamgirk‘: The Adam Book of Arak‘el of Siwnik‘ (Oxford, 2007).

96 pages, 8” x 10 5/8” (270 x 205mm)
60 colour illustrations, paperback
Text: Up to 15,000 words
ISBN: 978 1 904832.37.9 (13 digit)
Price: US$24.95/UK£12.95/€19.50
Publication date: September 2007
Publisher: D. Giles Limited, London

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The Chester Beatty Library, one of Ireland’s National Cultural Institutions, was created by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty and bequeathed by him to a trust for the benefit of the public. The Library is both an art museum and library, housing an outstanding collection of Islamic manuscripts, Chinese, Japanese, Indian and other Oriental art. Early papyri, including some of the earliest texts of the Bible and other early Christian manuscripts, western prints and printed books complete what is one of the richest collections of its kind in the world.