Matenasaran Manuscript Museum 1
Matenasaran Manuscript Museum
The Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts holds one of the world's richest depositories of a collection of nearly 17,000 manuscripts and 30,000 other medieval documents and books which span a broad range of subjects, including history, philosophy, medicine, literature, art history and cosmography in Armenian and many other languages.
The English speaking
guide did not turn up as promised at 09:30, so Jenna did her best to explain the exhibits to us. Only one room was open to the public, which was just as well, I didn't fancy trawling through 30,000+ books....
The oldest book in the museum is from the 5th century, and the oldest printed book from just a mere 30 years after the very first book was printed in Venice. When you think how old those colourful illustrations are, and how painstakingly each had to be produced by hand, it becomes quite overwhelming. I am fascinated with the Armenian alphabet with its 39 characters, some of which may have a slightly different intonations as far as the Armenians are concerned, but sound the same to me. Jenna has been trying to teach me a little every day, but I am struggling to get my tongue around some of their sounds. They also don't have different words for he and she, so Jenna often gets confused, and as a result so do we. Musical notes are also different in Armenian to the ones at home.
Matenasaran Manuscript Museum 1
Matenasaran Manuscript Museum
The Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts holds one of the world's richest depositories of a collection of nearly 17,000 manuscripts and 30,000 other medieval documents and books which span a broad range of subjects, including history, philosophy, medicine, literature, art history and cosmography in Armenian and many other languages.
The English speaking
guide did not turn up as promised at 09:30, so Jenna did her best to explain the exhibits to us. Only one room was open to the public, which was just as well, I didn't fancy trawling through 30,000+ books....
The oldest book in the museum is from the 5th century, and the oldest printed book from just a mere 30 years after the very first book was printed in Venice. When you think how old those colourful illustrations are, and how painstakingly each had to be produced by hand, it becomes quite overwhelming. I am fascinated with the Armenian alphabet with its 39 characters, some of which may have a slightly different intonations as far as the Armenians are concerned, but sound the same to me. Jenna has been trying to teach me a little every day, but I am struggling to get my tongue around some of their sounds. They also don't have different words for he and she, so Jenna often gets confused, and as a result so do we. Musical notes are also different in Armenian to the ones at home.