Our Book on Display event is presented by our librarian, Gagik Stepan-Sarkissian, who selects a book or a collection from our library to present.
Polyglot Narekatsi
Polyglot Narekatsi presents a special poetry reading to celebrate the literary jewel of the Armenian Middle Ages, Grigor Narekatsi’s Book of Lamentations. Marking the 27th of February, the date Pope Francis I chose to mark Grigor’s canonisation in the Roman Catholic Church, we’ll hear the Narek in seven languages, including the original Classical Armenian (Grabar), Eastern and Western Armenian, English, Dutch, French and Russian.
Armenians in Smyrna
This event features the two-volume work by the Mekhitarist Father Hagop Kosian on Armenians in Smyrna and the environs (Հայք ի Զմիւռնիա եւ ի շրջակայս) published in Vienna in 1899. Next to Constantinople, Smyrna (present-day Izmir) was another important hub of Armenian culture in the Ottoman Empire. Kosian’s work presents a detailed account of the presence of Armenians in Smyrna and its hinterland, including a historical overview of their settlement in the area, their churches and schools, cultural and charitable societies, publishing activities and their involvement in international trade
Documents of Armenian Architecture
This event features the series Documenti di Architettura Armena/Documents of Armenian Architecture initiated in the late 1960s by the Faculty of Architecture of Milan Polytechnic in collaboration with the Academy of Sciences of Soviet Armenia. This important series, in Italian and English, presented outstanding examples of pre-modern Armenian architecture and stone art, complete with spectacular photography and measured drawings of plans, sections and elevations. The series, in Italian and English, brought together specialist scholars from many countries who provided the accompanying texts, presenting these magnificent treasures for the first time to a Western audience.
Zabelle Boyajian’s Armenian Legends and Poems
Gagik Stepan-Sarkissian presents Zabelle Boyajian’s Armenian Legends and Poems, first published in 1916. This landmark publication was a carefully selected anthology compiled and richly illustrated by Boyajian, who also translated many of the poems.
New Dictionary of the Armenian Language (Նոր բառգիրք Հայկազեան լեզուի)
The epoch-making New Dictionary of the Armenian Language (Նոր բառգիրք Հայկազեան լեզուի) published by the Mekhitarist Congregation of Venice in 1836-37 has been chosen and the AI library is proud to count among its collection the first edition of this two-volume seminal work. It took the dictionary’s three compilers fifty years to complete this massive work which, after nearly 200 years, remains the most extensive and indispensable lexicon of Classical Armenian (grabar).
Ճանապարհորդութիւն ի Հայս | Mesrop Taghiadian’s travelogue in Eastern Armenia
This event explores Armenian books in our collection printed in India and the contributions the Indian-Armenian printing activities made to the Armenian Renaissance.