First knowledge center
The Matenadaran, officially the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, is a museum, repository of manuscripts, and a research institute in Yerevan, Armenia. It is the world’s largest repository of Armenian manuscripts.
It was established in 1959 on the basis of the nationalized collection of the Armenian Church, formerly held at Etchmiadzin. Its collection has gradually expanded since its establishment, mostly from individual donations. One of the most prominent landmarks of Yerevan, it is named after Mesrop Mashtots, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, whose statue stands in front of the building. Its collection is included in the register of the UNESCO Memory of the World program.
Historic predecessors
The earliest mention of a manuscript repository in Armenia was recorded in the writings of the fifth century historian Ghazar Parpetsi, who noted the existence of such a repository at the Etchmiadzin catholicosate in Vagharshapat, where Greek and Armenian language texts were kept. Sources remain silent on the fate of the Etchmiadzin matenadaran until the 15th century, when the catholicosate returned from Sis in Cilicia. Manuscript repositories existed at major monasteries in medieval Armenia, such as at Haghpat (Haghpat matenadaran), Sanahin, Saghmosavank, Tatev, Geghard, Kecharis, Hromkla, and Bardzraberd. In some cases, monastic complexes have separate structures as manuscript repositories. Sometimes manuscripts would be transferred to caves to avoid destruction by foreign invaders. Thousands of manuscripts in Armenia were destroyed over the course of the tenth to fifteenth centuries during the Turkic and Mongol invasions. According to the medieval Armenian historian Stepanos Orbelian, the Seljuk Turks were responsible for the burning of over 10,000 Armenian manuscripts in Baghaberd in 1170.
Modern Matenadaran
On December 17, 1920, just two weeks after the demise of the First Republic of Armenia and Sovietization of Armenia, the new Bolshevik government of Armenia issued a decree nationalizing all cultural and educational institutions in Armenia. The decree, signed by Minister of Education Ashot Hovhannisyan, declared the manuscript repository of Etchmiadzin the « property of the working peoples of Armenia. » It was put under the supervision of Levon Lisitsian, an art historian and the newly appointed commissar of all cultural and educational institutions of Etchmiadzin. In March 1922 the manuscripts from Etchmiadzin that had been sent to Moscow during World War I were ordered to be returned to Armenia by Alexander Miasnikian. 1,730 manuscripts were added to the original 4,660 manuscripts held at Etchmiadzin once they returned to Armenia.
In 1939 the entire collection of manuscripts of Etchmiadzin were transferred to the State Public Library in Yerevan (what later became the National Library of Armenia) by the decision of the Soviet Armenian government. In the same year there were 9,382 catalogued manuscripts at the Matenadaran. On March 3, 1959, the Council of Ministers of Soviet Armenian officially established the Matenadaran as an « institute of scientific research with special departments of scientific preservation, study, translation and publication of manuscripts » in the current building. It was named after Mesrop Mashtots, the creator of the Armenian alphabet, in 1962.
A branch of the Matenadaran was established next to the monastery of Gandzasar in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in 2015.
Architecture
The Matenadaran rises 18 m (59 ft) above street level, situated on a slope at the northeastern end of Mashtots Avenue, the main thoroughfare in central Yerevan. Designed by Yerevan’s chief architect Mark Grigorian, it is influenced by medieval Armenian architecture. The shallow niches draw inspiration from those in the monastery of Geghard.
It has been listed as a national monument of Armenia, and was last renovated in 2012.
Statues and open-air exhibition
The statue of Mesrop Mashtots and his disciple Koryun by Ghukas Chubaryan was erected in 1962 below the terrace where the main building stands. From 1963 to 1967, the statues of six medieval Armenian scholars, Toros Roslin, Grigor Tatevatsi, Anania Shirakatsi, Movses Khorenatsi, Mkhitar Gosh, and Frik, were erected in front of the building. They represent manuscript illumination, philosophy, cosmology, history, jurisprudence, and poetry, respectively.
