The Armenian manuscripts of the French National Library
January 22nd, 2010 by Roger Pearse

The catalogue of Armenian manuscripts at the French National Library
tells an interesting story of how the pre-revolution holdings were
assembled.

It all starts when Francis I of France entered into a treaty with the
Grand Turk, and established a permanent ambassador in Constantinople.
This opened the Turkish state to French scholars in search of Greek
texts. Bindings of Henri II in the Royal collection show that
Armenian manuscripts were being acquired in the middle of the 16th
century. But it was only in the second half of the 17th century,
under the influence of Colbert, that a definite policy of acquiring
Armenian mss came into being, as an official letter to the traveller
Antoine Galland (1646-1715) shows, sent just before his third voyage
to the East in 1679. This instructed him to buy:

`all the ancient Armenian books that can be found, and above all books
of history by a certain author named Moses [of Khorene] in that
language; also Armenian translations of the bible, written in ancient
times, because an Armenian bible has recently been printed in
Holland.’ [1]

Colbert was interested in Armenian affairs, not least because there
was an Armenian colony at Marseilles involved in the trade to Persia
and India, and he arranged for Louis XIV to grant permission on 11
August 1669 to an Armenian bishop-cum-printer Oskan of Yerevan to
operate at Marseilles. This in turn sparked interest among Paris
litterateurs like Richard Simon and Eusebe Renaudot in what bishop
Oskan was doing. These court Catholics made use of creeds as part of
the literary war against Protestantism, to demonstrate the antiquity
of catholic formulations. A Dominican sent by Colbert to Ethiopia
acquired one Armenian ms. in Cyprus on the way. Others were bought
from French merchants or travellers. In this sort of way 165 Armenian
mss were gathered in the Royal library alone prior to the French
Revolution.

Colbert himself acquired mss, as did other great persons of state or
religious orders. The collection of Renaudot went with the rest of
his rich library to the Maurist fathers of St. Germains-des-Pres,
which was seized at the revolution.

The first French scholar to interest himself in the study of the
Armenian language was Petis de la Croix (1653-1716). His father had
been secretary-interpreter to the French ambassador in Constantinople
for more than 20 years, from 1670. De la Croix himself was a
translator for the king. He left a large Armenian-French dictionary
in manuscript, assisted probably by the former Armenian patriarch of
Constantinople and Jerusalem, who had been removed from Constantinople
by the ambassador, the Marquis de Feriol, and held under arrest in the
Bastile from 1706 until his death in 1711. During his arrest the
patriarch copied a number of Armenian mss now in the BNF. Renaudot
was authorised to negotiate with him concerning his possible release
and return to the East.

A mission to the East in 1728-30 by Sevin and Fourmount resulted in
the acquisition of 134 pieces. A letter home by Sevin on 22 Dec. 1728
reveals optimism:

`Most of the works of Nestorius, Dioscorus, and some other famous
heretics, have been translated into that language [Armenian] and it
would be important to recover them, as well as various historical
pieces composed in ancient times by the Armenians. One of them, a
friend of Fonseca, flatters himself that he has the power to supply us
with these things but as the books of the Armenians are very carefully
written and also mostly decorated with figures of plants and animals,
a very high price is placed on them, which prevented me from buying
the six that he brought to me, consisting of New Testaments, Rituals,
and translations of St. Chrysostom, which it would be easy to find
again.’

In a last minute note on the same letter Sevin adds:

`Since I wrote the above, Mr. Fonseca has shown us in a house 160
Armenian mss, i.e. more than there are in all the libraries of Europe
altogether, and even in all of Constantinople. These mss are composed
of commentaries on scripture, translations of the fathers, ancient
works of theology and books of history; the most important is that of
Armenia, which is not to be had at Paris for less than £500. We have
been promised also the history of the martyrs of Palestine by
Eusebius, a piece which we don’t have in Greek, and which would throw
a considerable light on the first three centuries of the church. The
acquisition of so many manuscripts in one language is very important,
and there would be some risk in awaiting your order to buy it.’

Sevin went on to buy the mss anyway, for a total of £15,000, an
incredible sum, and then, naturally ran into difficulties. Sevin also
stated that he would have to steal one ms, because the church to which
it belonged could not sell its possessions. The end result of his
efforts, tho, was to substantially augment the holdings of the library
further.

[1] Henri Omont, Missions archeologiques francaises en Orient au XVIIe
et XVIIIe siecles, 1, Paris, 1902, p.206.

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