PROFESSOR MARC NICHANIAN LECTURES ON: "FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO VENICE IN THE DAYS OF LORD BYRON."
AZG Armenian Daily #207
10/11/2007
Beirut, November 9, 2007- Renowned Professor Marc Nichanian, delivered
his first public lecture entitled, "From Constantinople to Venice
in the days of Lord Byron", on October 31, in Haigazian University
Auditorium, among a capacity audience of Armenian intellectuals,
writers, faculty, staff and students.
Dr. Nichanian, who is currently a visiting professor in the Armenian
Studies Department, explored the events of the second decade of the
nineteenth century, i.e. the period when Armenian national philology
was invented.
Nichanian noted that that this philology was established through a
strange play of gazes and sub^_stitutions between Europeans, Greeks,
and Armenians, or between the raging Phil^_hellenism of the time and
a nascent "Philarmenism" that the Mekhitarist fathers wanted to foster.
Nichanian highlighted on the fact that Lord Byron was one of the
main representatives of this Phil^_hellen^_ism in Europe, and was
soon converted into a propagator of "Philarmenism".
Nichanian shared with the audience the mysterious aspect of Lord
Byron’s desire of learning Armenian, immediately upon his arrival to
Ven^_ice in November 1816.
During the course of the lecture, based on the heeds of a recent
article by Giancarlo Bolognesi, Marc Nichanian expounded the historical
and contextual reas^_ons behind this desire, presenting the colorful
personality of Ludovico Arborio di Breme, who played a crucial role
as the intermediary between Lord Byron and the Mekhitarist Fathers.