FIRST 5 VOLUMES OF SERIES “MATENAGIRK HAYOTS” COME OUT

Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Oct 11 2005

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The presentation of
the first five volumes of the series “Matenagirk Hayots” (“Manuscript
Armenian”) took place on October 3 at the American University of
Armenia (AUA). “Matenagirk” is an unprecedented manual in the history
of Armenology that envisages to publish the examination texts of the
whole medieval Armenian literature with the use of scientific and
technical achievements of the 21st century.

The first two volumes of the manuscript series, in which the literature
of the 5th century is summarized, were presented in 2003.

Now another three volumes that represent a summary of the 6th and
7th centuries and contain 148 works by more than 50 authors have
been published.

The speakers were unanimous in the opinion that a really monumental
work elevating Armenology to a new qualitative level has been done.

“The Digital Library” of Armenian literature that was created under
the direction of Meruzhan Karapetian and received in 2001 an award
of the RA President forms the work’s basis.

“This is the most valuable work financed by the Gyulbekian Fund in
Armenia,” Professor Paruyr Muradian noted. The publication costs were
covered by the Catholicosate of the Great Cilician House.

Alexan Hakobian, editor-in-chief of the volumes on the 6th and 7th
centuries, presented the principles of the group’s work, which allow
to come as close as possible to the original texts of the manuscripts,
most of which were preserved in the form of late centuries’ copies
with numerous distortions during their copying.

“Thanks to this work the Armenologists all over the world received
an instrument meeting the requirements of time,” Michael Stone,
Professor of Jerusalem University, said.

The computer version of the work has voluminous glossaries that
provide researchers with unprecedented opportunities.

Ashot Melkonian, Director of the Institute of History of the RA
Academy of Sciences, and Harutyun Armenian, President of the AUA,
expressed their concern about the possibility to continue this most
important work.