HEBREW UNIVERSITY ARMENIAN FACULTY ATTEND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
AZG Armenian Daily #184
13/10/2005
Jerusalem – From 7-9 September, over 60 scholars of Armenian Studies
gathered in Vitoria, Spain for the Tenth General Conference of the
Association Internationale des Etudes Armeniennes (AIEA). AIEA, which
was founded in 1980 by Professor Michael Stone of the Hebrew University
and Professor J.J.S. Weitenberg of Leiden University in Holland, is
an organization of scholars of Armenian Studies, with its centre in
Europe. The suggestion to found the organization was made by Dr. Nira
Stone. Professor Michael Stone is Honourary Life President of AIEA.
The meeting was attended by scholars from all over Europe, America,
Armenia and the Middle East. From the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Dr. Sergio La Porta, Professor Michael Stone and doctoral student
Mikayel Arakelian all presented lectures, while Dr. Nira Stone also
participated. They met there Hebrew University Armenian Studies PhD
graduate, Professor Peter Cowe of UCLA, and former Armenian Studies
student Pablo Trojiano who teaches at the Compultensian University
in Madrid. Former visiting researcher Prof. Theo van Lint, Gulbenkian
Professor of Armenian at Oxford University also joined in the Hebrew
University reunion.
All the Armenian Studies faculty from the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem’s Armenian Studies program were there and they all brought
home new and stimulating ideas. They were able to discuss matters
with colleagues, and as a result new directions of cooperative work
are emerging and will soon be announced. The lectures of the Hebrew
University team were enthusiastically received and garnered very
positive reactions.
Professor Stone devoted his lecture to his recently completed
translation of the medieval Armenian epic poem about Adam and
Eve, written by Arakel of Siunik at the beginning of the fifteenth
century. The poem, a complex composition of quite startling beauty,
contains over 5,500 lines of poetry, which Professor Stone translated
into English poetry. It is presently being considered for publication.
Quite different, but equally stimulating, Dr. Sergio La Porta presented
a paper on “The Earliest Armenian Scholia on the Works Attributed to
Dionysius the Areopagite.” Dr. La Porta reported on his most recent
progress in the preparation of an edition and translation of the
Armenian commentary on this highly influential work. He proposed a new
date for the composition of the comments as well as challenging their
modern attributions. In addition to providing a linguistic analysis
of the scholia, Dr. La Porta posited the locus of their production
and the context in which they were composed.
Mikayel Arakelian described in detail the catalogue he has prepared of
illuminated late medieval Armenian manuscripts in Germany. This very
thorough work will make known several hundred unknown or little known
manuscripts, describing their character, context and particularly
their artistic character. Mikayel is writing his doctoral thesis on
the Armenian art of New Julfa.
The Armenian Studies program at the Hebrew University was established
in 1966. It offers BA, MA and PhD degrees. For further information
contact Prof. Michael E. Stone ([email protected]) or Dr. Sergio
La Porta ([email protected]). The Jerusalem Armenian StudiesWeb
Site is: