Manuscript No. 36: Liturgical Texts (Fragments)

Item Overview

Title

Manuscript No. 36: Liturgical Texts (Fragments)

Alternative title

T ōnats’oyts’, Zhamagirk’, Gandzaran

Date Created

15th/16th century

Language

Armenian

Collection

Armenian Manuscripts

Notes

Description

Fragments of three different liturgical texts bound together. Each fragment is described separately as follows:Fragment I: Text in minuscule bolorgir, and initials throughout the text in red notragir capitals.Fragment II: Text in notragir, written in one column of 18 lines. Subtitles in red ink, and initials throughout the text in red notragir capitals. Musical notations on fols. 128-139v, 165v-201.Fragment III: Text in notragir, written in one column of 16 lines. Some subtitles in bolorgir and others in notragir in red ink, and initials in red notragir capitals.With few exceptions, the quires in the three fragments are not numbered.

Colophon

Fol. 47v. In same script as the text.Fol. 139v. Later inscription in notragir.Fol. 222. Later inscription in crude notragir.

Provenance

There are no colophons in any of the three fragments; hence the date of execution and provenance of the codices to which they belonged are unknown.Fragment I has a prayer, written in the same script as the text, that reads: “O brothers, remember me, the sinful Yakob, in your purest prayers” (fol. 47v). We may assume that this Yakob was the scribe who copied the book, probably in the 15th century.Fragment II was probably written in the 16th century. This conjecture is based on the paleography and the style of the illustrations. The fragment contains two inscriptions. The first provides the birth dates of three children: 1686, 1690, and a third date which is illegible because it was cut out in the course of rebinding. The second inscription (fol. 139v) mentions the name Yērapet, son of Davut’, and is dated A.D. 1812. It is probably that Yērapet owned the codex to which these fragments belonged.

Physical Description

Extent

95 fols. - Fragment II
127 fols - Fragment I
6 fols. - Fragment III

Dimensions

10.5x7.5 cm.

Binding note

Traditional 17th/18th-cenuty Armenian binding, from New Julfa, in excellent condition. Light brown calf over thin wooden boards. Upper board blind-tooled with two concentric borders filled with two different leaf tools, and outlined by a double fillet. Central rectangle has a stamp of the crowned Virgin and Child standing on a crescent moon. Lower cover blind-tooled with same borders, but central stamp depicts a Crucifixion over a skull with a saint at the foot of the cross. The stamps are similar to others used in New Julfa at this time. Spine has three slightly raised bands forming four panels, each blind-stamped with a symmetrically shaped foliated tool. Fore-edge flap extant and blind-tooled with same stamps as those forming the borders. Flap lined with a red, yellow and green vertically striped cloth, probably silk. Two holes on each board indicate previous placement of clasp, now wanting, except for fragment of one wooden pin on upper board. Traditional raised endbands of red, black, and white silk, in excellent condition. Paper pastedowns. Edges uncolored, but stained. Three V-notches.

Condition note

Good state of preservation. Leaves missing at the beginning of the book. The edges of the textblock have been somewhat damaged by fire, and several pages have suffered damage from dampness. Fols. 15-18 have been rewritten to replace missing leaves.

Illustrations note

Fragment I (fols. 1-127) has three small headpieces with marginal palmettes and tubular initials (fols. 4v, 47v, and 108v). There are also 12 marginal ornaments consisting of palmettes, crosses, or tempietti, and 13 tubular and bird-form initials, all of which mark the divisions of the text. A confident black line, apparently in the same ink as the text, underlies all the illuminations. Many initials and palmettes (particularly after fol. 82) add only the orange-pink used in the text for rubrics, but others, and the headpieces, use s fuller palette adding magenta, blue, and a faint yellow-brown wash.The headpiece on fol. 4v is more elaborate than the others. It is almost square. With a fleur-de-lis cut out at the bottom edge. The remainder of the field is filled with a vine interlocking around clusters of buds and leaves. The frame is banded in two shades of magenta which are used along with blue, on the vines. The background is a faint brown wash. The marginal palmette and incipit initials are crisply picked out in the same colors, with the addition of the orange used for rubrics.The headpieces on fols. 47v and 108v (If they can be called headpieces, since they occur in the middle of the pages) are narrower, the field in both filled with a simple rinceau made up of a single loop of forming two knots and three ovals.Fragment II (fols. 128-222)has 20 decorative initials (bird-form, tubular, and simple expanded outlines) with corresponding marginal palmettes, birds, plants, and tempietti. The illuminations in this fragment are hesitantly drawn in heavy black lines, and are frequently retraced. Most have areas colored in a drab, reddish purple; some also have yellow washes. The palmette on fol. 196v was left uncolored. The palmette forms often show some difficulty with the traditional geometric combinations of leaf forms. More free-form plant drawings (e.g. the clump of grasses on fol. 150v) are most successful.Fragment III (fols. 223-228) contains no illumination.

Keywords

Genre

Manuscripts

Resource type

text