Gospel wehamor

Manuscript page

The time and place of writing is unknown. Two anonymous commemorative records of the first compiler have survived, which, however, do not report anything about the customer or the date of writing. According to one of these records, the Gospel was written in the monastery of the Holy Trinity, but the location of this monastery is not specified. Records added later shed light on the history of the manuscript. In the XIII century, it was kept in the monastery Avutz Tar (near the village of Garni ), from where it was acquired by a certain Amenavag in 1294 ^{[1] [2]} . In the XV century, the manuscript was in the monastery Makeniats (not far from Vardenis ), in the 16th century it came to the village of Banants (now Bayan , in Azerbaijan ), where it was restored in 1625 ^[3] . It was here that Bishop Makar Barkhudaryants discovered her at the end of the 19th century. In 1895, Barkhudaryants gave the first written description of the manuscript, noting that it is known among the local population as the "Old Gospel" and "Guardian". Moreover, the first epithet is already found in the record of 1625, and the name “Guardian” is associated with the beliefs of local residents: they believed that this Gospel had healing power, and they treated the sick ^{[3] [4]} .

In 1974, with the assistance of a resident of Bayan, Asi Grigoryan, the manuscript was handed over to the leader of the Azerbaijani Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Bishop Vagan Teryan. The latter, in turn, presented it to the Catholicos of All Armenians, Vazgen I , on January 1, 1975, devoting a gift to the blessed memory of the Catholicos mother. On July 25 of the same year, Vazgen I transferred a valuable copy for storage to the Institute of Ancient Manuscripts named after Mesrop Mashtots, where the manuscript received registration number 10680. The staff of Matenadaran, taking into account the wishes of Bishop Vagan and with the consent of the Catholicos, gave the manuscript the nickname “Wehamor” - in honor of the mother of Catholicos Wazgen who died in 1974 - Siranuish Palchyan, a school teacher from Bucharest ^{[4] 5] [6]} .

Since 1991, the Presidents of the Republic of Armenia have taken a solemn oath during the inauguration of this Gospel ^{[6] [7]} . It was this manuscript from among the numerous candidates that was chosen by the first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan , a former researcher at Matenadaran ^[8] . A separate niche was allocated for its storage in the Matenadaran building.

Contains 257 parchment sheets. Dimensions - 33 × 25.7 cm. Font - erkatagir . The salary is decorated with one large, gilded cross with five stones, and nineteen small metal crosses ^[9] .

The first studies were carried out already in 1975, as soon as the manuscript fell into the hands of scientists. The work was headed by a senior researcher at Matenadaran A. Matevosyan . The yellowed sheets, the font erkatagir and the nickname “The Old Gospel”, known since 1625, indicated the old age of the manuscript, but the results of paleographic analysis exceeded all expectations.

The manuscript turned out to be written in two handwritings (I: l. 1–121, II: l. 122–256), both scribes used the oldest forms of letters of the Armenian alphabet , known from lapidary inscriptions , palimpsests and small manuscript fragments of the 5th – 7th centuries. This was especially pronounced in the letters Հ, Կ, Վ, Ճ, Զ, Ծ and Փ. Some abbreviations of religious terms that were discontinued in the 9th-10th centuries were noticed. The early writing period was also indicated by title design, memorabilia forms and punctuation . It turned out to be impossible to determine the exact time and place of writing, however, the manuscript was undoubtedly written earlier than the first known precisely dated manuscripts - the Gospel of Tsarina Mlke of 862 and the Lazarevsky Gospel "887 years. A. Matevosyan referred the manuscript to the 7th – 8th centuries ^{[4] [6] [10] [11] [12]} .

Several sheets, which were originally part of this Gospel, were subsequently discovered in another manuscript of Matenadaran (No. 10668) ^[13] .

Now the manuscript is considered a number of sources of the oldest full-fledged Armenian manuscript ^{[14] [15]} . Some modern scholars call the time of writing the 7th century, but such an early dating, as noted by Peter Coe , needs a more thorough study ^[16] . Other sources write about the end of the 7th – beginning of the 8th centuries ^[14] . The terminus ante quem is 862 (the date of writing of the Gospel of Queen Mlke ).

In 2005, by decree of the Government of Armenia, the manuscript was included in the list of “Especially valuable cultural values ​​of the cultural heritage of the Republic of Armenia” ^[17] .