An Armenian manuscript in its original binding will be showcased at the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair to be held from November 15 to 17.
The manuscript dated 1405 will be displayed in the booth of Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S – a Danish antiquarian bookshop.
“The last Byzantine Emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos was born in Constantinople in 1405. The very same year, far to the east, in the Monastery of Narek, near Lake Van, Dom Sarkis, priest from Sebaste, made the binding for this Armenian Tetraevangelion, written—and possibly illuminated—by Stephanos (Izit) the Monk for Thadeus the Monk, priest and philosopher,” reads a post in the bookshops Facebook Fage.
The 10th century Monastery of Narek is gone. It was abandoned in 1915, during the genocide, and was demolished in 1951. The Byzantine Empire is gone, having fallen in 1453 to the Ottomans under the Mehmed II. Yet, this manuscript managed to survive to our day. And even more incredibly, in its original binding.
Founded in 1821 by Christian Tønder Sæbye, Herman H.J. Lynge & Søn is the oldest antiquarian bookshop in Scandinavia. It specializes mainly in important and rare books in all fields of Science and the Humanities.
