Armenian illuminated manuscripts

Armenian illuminated manuscripts (Armenian: Հայկական մանրանկարչություն, romanized: Haykakan manrankarch'owt'yown), form an Armenian tradition of formally prepared documents where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. They are related to other forms of Medieval Armenian art, Persian miniatures, and to Byzantine illuminated manuscripts. The earliest surviving examples date back to the Golden Age of Armenian art and literature in the 5th century. Armenian illuminated manuscripts embody Armenian culture; they illustrate its spiritual and cultural values.^[1]

The most famous Armenian miniaturist, Toros Roslin, lived in the 13th century. The art form flourished in Greater Armenia, Lesser Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora. Its appearance dates back to the creation of the Armenian alphabet in Armenia, in the year 405 AD. Very few fragments of illuminated manuscripts from the 6th and 7th centuries have survived. The oldest fully preserved manuscript dates from the 9th century. Art experienced a golden age in the 13th and 14th centuries when the main schools and centers started to pop up (fifteen hundred centers of writing and illumination^[2]). The most striking are those of Syunik, Vaspurakan and Cilicia. Many Armenian illuminated manuscripts outside the country of Armenia have also survived the centuries. Despite the creation of the Armenian printing press in the 16th century, the production of miniatures continued until the 19th century and survives through modern Armenian painting and cinema.

Armenian miniaturists have always been in contact with other artists of the East and the West whose art has deeply and richly influenced Armenian illumination. According to the Russian poet Valery Bryusov, "crossing and intertwining before merging into a single and entirely new whole, two forces, two opposing principles have, over the centuries, governed the destiny of Armenia and shaped the character of its people: the principle of the West and that of the East, the spirit of Europe and the spirit of Asia".^[3] The most famous works of Armenian miniaturists are distinguished by precise skill in execution, originality of composition and color treatment, brilliance due to the use of pigments mainly prepared with the bases of metal oxides and an extremely stylized portrayal of the world.

The Matenadaran Institute in Yerevan has the largest collection of Armenian manuscripts, including the Mugni Gospels and Echmiadzin Gospels. The second-largest collection of Armenian illuminated manuscripts is stored in the depository of the St. James Cathedral, of the Holy Apostolic Church's Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Other collections exist in the British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and other large collections at the Mechitarist establishments in Venice and Vienna, as well as in the United States. The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) holds the Gladzor Gospels^[4] (cf. University of Gladzor),a richly illuminated Armenian Gospel manuscript dating to the 14th century, among its collection of Armenian manuscripts, the largest in the United States.