The Library of Congress’s African and Middle Eastern Division has recently completed the digitization of its smallest Armenian Four Gospels (9.8×7.5cm).
According to its inscriptions and the heavy scars of water and fire damage on the manuscript, the codex had an arduous journey through the centuries in the Armenian highlands and the South Caucasus.
An unknown scribe completed the Four Gospels within a year, between 1683 and 1684, in the St. Stephen monastery in Syunik.
During the 18th century, it was acquired by a priest, then fell captive to invaders, was rescued, and given to an Armenian church, Holy Mother of God, in the Goghtn region.
We learn from another inscription in the manuscript a century later that in 1883 the manuscript was gifted to the Saint John the Baptist Armenian Church in the town of Shushi.
The fully digitized manuscript can be accessed here: www.loc.gov
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