Manuscript Summary:Liturgical manuscript (Sharaknots), written by the copyist Awetis in Khizan in the province Van in the year 1647 (1096 according to the Armenian calendar). It contains 11 large miniatures and 28 miniatures in the margins, executed and signed by the painter Yovanes Gharietsi. He was one of the most fascinating artists of the late School of Vaspurakan. The manuscript is part of certain hymnals, created for private customers in the region of Lake Van and characterized by bright colors and interlace ornamentation. The manuscript features the Armenian Khaz-notation. The text contains the collection of hymns in use in the Armenian Church, in the same order as in a Hymnarium printed as a first edition in Amsterdam in the year 1664. Three more hymnals of this type, also the result of the collaboration of these two artists, are known: two in Jerusalem and one in Jerewan. Attached in the beginning and at the end are two sheets of parchment containing a part of the Proprium de Sanctis from a Latin breviary from the 13th/14th century.(ber)
Standard description: Description by Davit Ghazaryan, translated into English by Aida Charkhchyan, the verse by Mery Hovsepyan, 2013.
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Online Since: 04/23/2013
Utopia, armarium codicum bibliophilorum, Cod. 4
Paper · 416 ff. · 13.1 x 10 cm · Awendants, Khizan in the Province Van · 1647
Armenian Hymnarium (Sharaknots)
How to quote:
Utopia, armarium codicum bibliophilorum, Cod. 4, f. 153r – Armenian Hymnarium (Sharaknots) (https://www.e-codices.ch/en/list/one/utp/0004)
Description by Davit Ghazaryan, translated into English by Aida Charkhchyan, the verse by Mery Hovsepyan, 2013.
Manuscript title: Armenian Hymnarium
Place of origin: Village of Awendants (Province of Vaspurakan)
Date of origin: AE 1096 - AD 1647
Support: paper
Extent:
413+3 (repeated fs. 227, 238, 245).
Format: 13.1 x 10 cm
Foliation: It has later pagination, made by two different hands from 1 to 816, i.e. 1r-413r.
Collation: PARTS: I to 36 x 12 (I, 8; II, V, 10; III, XI, 11; 36, 6.
Condition: Satisfactory, three ties and three rivets of ties are missing. On Fly-leafs D and E, on Protective sheet C small tears are seen. The manuscript is incomplete and several folios of the text missing: 4 folios between fs. 7 and 8; 1 folio between fs. 29 and 30, 41 and 42, 51 and 52, 111 and 112:
Page layout:
one column; 22 lines.
Writing and hands: Scribe: Awetis.
Script: cursive with neumas (khazes).
Colophon about the time of writing
by the scribe:
390r Glory to the Trinity
And only the best Nature
And the best Trinity
Uninspectable unity.
As the Lord is the reason of birth of essence
And his son the birth of essence
The soul is the birth of spring
Unachievable for the mind
Unsatisfied for the humans tribe
Without speaking and discussing
Created in my sorrow
Recognized from it
AS the humans were appeared
Were recognized from the children
With their mind and speech and soul
And here is the human being
The Lord is instant as his mind
The hugged son | 390v | is like his speech
The soul the flown of worthy
The king and master of human being
As the Lord is the endless sea
And the son the abundant river
The soul is the spring of life
And cooling for the people
The Lord alike the roots of tree
And his son the branches of it
The peerless fruit is the soul
Which together are eternal
As my speech is hesitant
And my mind is needy
To dare impudently
To remember the blameless name
He is the grantor and the dispenser
He gives freedom plentifully
They will stay in the
For ignoring the Trinity
But I being unremembered
And wise less in the wisdom
Lazy and idle in the soul
And lively as a human being
I Beg you the lord of charity
And you the only Trinity
Give me the master of wisdom
To orate with | 391r | explosion
This metric frugal verse
This marvelous blooming place
This sweet song-book
This heaven full of fruit
Peerless and delicious
The lily of flowering meadow
With its different colors
Like a flowery garden
Smells nicely on the peoples noses.
Being composed by the Saints
Created with delicious taste
Being orated by translators
Have been called psalms.
And the twelve stones
On the Aharons cloak
With shiny colors
Are the names of twelve sons.
And the twelve springs
Which came from Akhim
Which were called sweet waters
And the twelve tribes drunk them
| 391v | And also Hyson Naves Son
Who took the people away from the country
Drained the Jordanian
And choose the twelve stones.
It was the symbol of Jesus
And the twelve apostles
That always wondered everywhere
And served as support of belief.
The Zoo morplics are the twelve
Who were approved as the masters of the sky
They rule the human beings
And irrational elements.
But also the speechless name
Of the holiest Trinity
Father, Son and holly spirit
Formed the twelve letters.
And also with such advices
With these twelve psalms
Being composed fully by us
We will be gloried by them.
As the brought up children
Will sing these songs sweetly
| 392r | Will rejoice with their souls
And happy through their bodies.
And I praise you, oh, you, the psalm,
Being composed with various stones
Composed in the churches
Like Aharons cloak.
And those who orates with soft-spoken words
With modest soul and holly mind
Will be the temple and the house
For the holiest Trinity.
But those who doesn’t say for being lazy
Or just to say it for the pleasure
They will never be remissioned
From now, forever and ever.
You are the remedies of my pains
And the healer of peoples wounds
The curber of Sadael regiments
The supporter of needy.
As the proper ten voices
The children who are fond of learning
Always burn him with the hope
Praising God forever.
| 392v | In this marvelous register
With various stones which are present
The man and the religious priest
Has chosen many of tem
Shining with angels behavior
Moving ahead with it
With modest and wise soul
The adviser of the human beings.
Desirable as a deer
Immortal as a spring
Made to create the stones
And decorate them wonderfully.
I am the reason of disasters
Unable in kindness
The announcer and the land
I did his commands.
Being suffered in my body
Lively and willing
With effort and sufferings
I did it | 393r | fully.
In 1647
It was done fully
With the help of Holy Trinity.
And you remember the Lord’s words
When he’ll come for the Doomsday
Listen he blissful voice
And let’s bless my worthy God.
Let’s bless the remorseful Father
The only Holy Trinity
Give him ceaseless glory
Which is blessed forever.
[Translated by Mery Hovsepyan]
393r And now, the book of spiritual food, named Hymnal, was rewritten from a good and choice | 393v | example named Xlik by the hand of sinful and ungifted and humble scribe Awetis. Fhanks to God’s favor I started writing and by God’s mercy I did it on 1096 of the Armenian era at the village named Awendants under the shelter of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul and Saint George the general, during the unsettled period of high taxation by the Muslims, and during the rising to the occasion of the force and the oppress all over the world, and what's more to armenian nation for its huge guilty.
Now, if anyone comes to see this in order to read or to copy, remember in your prayers the unworthy scribe Awetis and my parents the priest Vardan and Mahmur, and my grandfather the priest Tuma, and my master Reverend Kirakos, and my sons Tuma and Vardo, and my daughters | 394r | Tankek and Trkhun, and their mother Ariha, who has died this year, who worked hard with unworthy scribe. God, lights their souls in the Holy Kingdom. Amen.
by the artist:
188v (bottom margin): O brother, open and look and pray for mercy for stupid Gharietsi, on 1647.
2. (cursive, on 1837)
For enjoyment of sir Zohrap Zakharich Melikov 30/9/1837.
Decoration: Artist: Yovanes Gharietsi
Illumination - The Raising of Lazarus 108r, The Washing of Feet 119r, The Kiss of Judas 122r, The Crucifixion 124v, The Entombment 133r, The Resurrection 136v, The Ascension 174v, The Descent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost) 188v, The Transfiguration 225v, The Dormition of the Mother of God 233v, Two Apostles, one holding the Cross aloft, symbolizing the Feast of the Holy Cross 244v.
In the margin: Annunciation/ Archangel Gabriel (6v) and the Holy Virgin (7r), The Holy spirit 23r, 198v, the Holy Virgin 25v, Saint Anthony the Hermit 31v, Emperor Theodore 33v, David with the head of Goliath 35v, Saint Stephan Protomartyr 37r, Saints Peter and Paul 39v, Saint John the Evangelist 41v, Saint Jonah in the mouth of the whale 48r, Saints Sargis and Martiros 50r, Christ with the lamb 63v, The Forty Martyrs 81v, Saint Gregory the Illuminator imprisoned 92r, The Wise Virgins 114v, Atributs of the Maundy Thursday 118r, the Beheading of St John the Baptist՝ 143v, Saint John the Baptist 207r, Saint Gregory the Illuminator 208v, Saint Nerses the Great 213r, Saint Hripsime 216r, Moses scepter 254r, 255v, a Prophet 262v, Saint Mesrop Mashtots 266r, the Catholicos Saint Hacob Mtsbena 268v, Seraphim 272r, a Patriarch 274v.
Additions: Pen trying - Fly-leaf Ar (cursive) Today. Fly-leaf Er (cursive) Georg.
Annotation – Protective sheet Cr (cursive) 413 Blaft + 4 Latin. S. Zaerl (?). Lining B. (cursive) 1277-1096=181.
Binding:
blind stamped brown morocco over wooden boards, with fore edge flap; lining from pink cloth. Marginal sides: with floral motifs. Protective sheet: 1 (C) At the beginning: unwritten paper.
Accompanying materials: Fly-leaf: 2 (AB) + 2 (DE), parts of the same manuscript: Latin Breviary, 15th-century.
Contents:
1.
1r-4r
[Canon of Joachim and Anna : Parents of the Holy Virgin]
2.
4r-7r
Canon of Anna and Joachim: Parents of the Holy Virgin
3.
7r-v
Canon of the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin
b.
(139r-143v)
Canon of the Holy and Vivifying Resurrection of Christ
Annot. of the scribe 139vMonday is the Day of Dead Fathers, Say it when it must be said.
c.
(143v-144v)
Saturday is the Day of Saint John the Baptist
44.
144v-151v
Canon of the New Sunday of the Easter
Annot. of the scribe 148vThis Wednesday is the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin.
45.
152r-174r
This Sunday is the day of all martyriums
Annot. of the scribe 164rThis Sanday is the day of the appearance of the Holy Cross.
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