Literary Tradition of Armenia

The phrase “to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding” from Solomon’s “Book of Proverbs” is believed to have been the first sentence to be written in Armenian. The one to write down the first phrase in Armenian was the creator of the Armenian alphabet Mesrop Mashtots.

The Armenian literary tradition dates back to distant antiquity. Armenian mythology features deities and spirits of writing and literature, such as the spirit writer Grogh (literally “writer” in Armenian) and the god of literature Tir. Armenia’s wealth of writing traditions is now regarded as one of the main factors that contributed to the survival of the Armenian nation. Thanks to their exceptional love for literature, the Armenians managed to maintain their language, culture, and religion despite centuries of persecution by several invading empires.

The Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, commonly known as Matenadaran, today holds one of the richest treasuries of ancient books and manuscripts on a wide range of subjects, including medicine, philosophy, cosmography, and history in Armenian and many other languages. Although much of the Armenian literary heritage was destroyed – for example, over 10,000 manuscripts were burned by the Seljuk Turks after a 40-year siege of Kapan – more than 30,000 have survived until our days.

by peopleOfAr.com

Ancient manuscripts of Matenadaran

CGI 3D Video Mapping DEMO : “Matenadaran” by – NuFormer

Մատենադարան. Ձեռագրերի գաղտնիքները /Խորհրդավոր մատենադարան/