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83-571: Harichavank known as one of the most famous monastic centers in Armenia and it was especially renowned for its school and scriptorium . Archaeological excavations of 1966 indicate that Harich was in existence during the 2nd century BC, and was one of the more well known fortress towns in Armenia. The oldest part of this Armenian monastery is the Church of St. Gregory the Enlightener (Սբ. Գրիգոր Լուսավորիչ); it

166-460: A "jewel". The monastery consists of a narthex ( gavit ) and the main church, named for John the Baptist . The church's exterior dimensions are 12.3 by 17.75 metres (40.4 ft × 58.2 ft). The narthex or gavit , measured 11.8 by 13.25 metres (38.7 ft × 43.5 ft), is a square-plan hall with two columns near the eastern wall that support the roof. It is very similar to

249-420: A large cultural and enlightenment center of medieval Armenia. At the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century, two monumental gavits ( narthexes ) were built of big stones, some measuring 3.5 meters. The larger narthex (gavit) is adjacent to the western facade of the cathedral and is linked to the northern apse of the Church of St. Gregory. It is a rectangular building supported by four pillars, with

332-447: A large number of texts copied. References in modern scholarly writings to 'scriptoria' typically refer to the collective written output of a monastery, somewhat like the chancery in the early regal times is taken to refer to a specific fashion of modelling formulars, but especially traditional is the view that scriptoria was a necessary adjunct to a library, as per the entry in du Cange, 1678 'scriptorium'. At this church whose patron

415-467: A monastic scriptorium would be the armarius ("provisioner"), who provided the scribes with their materials and supervised the copying process. However, the armarius had other duties as well. At the beginning of Lent, the armarius was responsible for making sure that all of the monks received books to read, but he also had the ability to deny access to a particular book. By the 10th century the armarius had specific liturgical duties as well, including singing

498-416: A more full understanding of the text. He then continues to praise scribes by saying "The dedicated scribe, the object of our treatise, will never fail to praise God, give pleasure to angels, strengthen the just, convert sinners, commend the humble, confirm the good, confound the proud and rebuke the stubborn". Among the reasons he gives for continuing to copy manuscripts by hand, are the historical precedent of

581-552: A pigment used in the decoration of medieval illuminated manuscripts , embedded in the dental calculus of remains found in a religious women's community in Germany, which dated to the 11th-12th centuries. Chelles Abbey , established in France during the early medieval period, was also well known for its scriptorium, where nuns produced manuscripts and religious texts. There is also evidence of Jewish women working as scribes of Hebrew texts from

664-474: A refectory with a kitchen and a bakery, a school, a hostel for monks and disciples, an inn, stores and cattlesheds. Greenery was planted in the yards. South of the monastery, on a steep cliff, stands the Hermitage Chapel. In the cemetery there are ruins of a small single-nave basilica of the fifth century with annexes in the sides of the altar apse and interesting tombstones with ornamented slabs dating from

747-583: A stalactite carving in the central part of the ceiling. Over 800 years the monastery was repeatedly reconstructed. Damages inflicted on it were repaired and small annexes and chapels were added to it at various times. The largest of these dates back to the second half of the 19th century, when Harich was made the summer audience of the Katholikos of Echmiadzin in 1850. The monastery grounds expanded northwards and were encircled with walls and towers. New one- and two-storey structures were erected: Katholikos’ offices,

830-454: A video posted online showed Azerbaijani police at the monastery. Simultaneously, Azerbaijan's State Service of Cultural Heritage issued a statement that claimed that the "Ganjasar monastery" is "one of the most prominent monuments of Christian architecture of Caucasian Albania". It claimed that under Armenian "occupation" it was "vandalized by Armenians" who carried out "illegal repair-restoration". Azerbaijani historian Rizvan Hüseynov claimed

913-434: A week all through the period of study. In turn, each Psalm studied separately would have to be read slowly and prayerfully, then gone through with the text in one hand (or preferably committed to memory) and the commentary in the other; the process of study would have to continue until virtually everything in the commentary has been absorbed by the student and mnemonically keyed to the individual verses of scripture, so that when

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996-434: Is a 13th-century Armenian Apostolic cathedral (historically a monastery) near the village of Vank , in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh , Azerbaijan . It has historically been the most important church of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) since its foundation. One of the finest pieces of Armenian architecture of the mid-1200s, the building is best known among scholars for its richly decorated dome. In Azerbaijan , where it

1079-491: Is a domed structure that is usually placed in the category of so-called "Mastara-style" churches (named after the fifth century church of St. Hovhannes in the village of Mastara, in the southern part of Shirak ). The founding date of the monastery is unknown, but probably it was built no later than the 7th century, when St. Gregory was erected. Harichavank was occupied and modified by the Kipchak Turks from 1120 to 1191, but

1162-461: Is located atop a hill, at an altitude of 1,270 metres (4,170 ft), to the south-west of the village of Vank (Azerbaijani: Vəngli ) in the province of Martakert . The walled monastery complex includes the church with its narthex ( gavit ), living quarters, bishop's residence, refectory, and a school building. The living quarters, located on the northern side contain eight cells (2.9 by 2.5 metres (9.5 ft × 8.2 ft)), were built in

1245-401: Is not a monastic rule as such, Cassiodorus did write his Institutes as a teaching guide for the monks at Vivarium, the monastery he founded on his family's land in southern Italy. A classically educated Roman convert, Cassiodorus wrote extensively on scribal practices. He cautions over-zealous scribes to check their copies against ancient, trustworthy exemplars and to take care not to change

1328-473: Is referred to as "Ganjasar" ( Azerbaijani : Gəncəsər ), the history of the monastery is falsified. Azerbaijan authorities deny its Armenian heritage and instead call it a " Caucasian Albanian temple." The name Gandzasar , which means "treasure mountain" in Armenian , is believed to have originated from the tradition that the monastery was built on a hill containing ores of silver and other metals. The site

1411-509: Is to read a book in its entirety. Thus each monastery was to have its own extensive collection of books, to be housed either in armarium (book chests) or a more traditional library. However, because the only way to obtain a large quantity of books in the Middle Ages was to copy them, in practice this meant that the monastery had to have a way to transcribe texts in other collections. An alternative translation of Benedict's strict guidelines for

1494-516: The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war , the more than one hundred manuscripts kept there were evacuated to Yerevan and displayed at the Yerevan Matenadaran in March 2021. In the 1970s, Soviet Azerbaijani historians, particularly Rashid Geyushev and Ziya Bunyadov , asserted a negationist theory that postulated that Gandzasar was a Caucasian Albanian monument. They based their claim on the fact that it

1577-549: The Rule of Saint Benedict describe the labor of transcription as the common occupation of the community, so it is also possible that Benedict failed to mention the scriptorium by name because of the integral role it played within the monastery. Monastic life in the Middle Ages was strictly centered around prayer and manual labor. In the early Middle Ages, there were many attempts to set out an organization and routine for monastic life. Montalembert cites one such sixth-century document,

1660-520: The Zakarides restored the traditional decoration when then restored sovereignty after 1191. The Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God (Սբ. Աստվածածին) that dominates the monastic complex was built by the orders of Zakare Zakarian , Amirspasalar (commander-in-chief) and Prince who ruled Eastern Armenia in the 13th century together with his brother Ivane Zakarian , and completed in 1201. Prince Zakare started

1743-580: The clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces , which were the deadliest since the ceasefire of 1994. The monastery's 770th anniversary was commemorated in 2010 and the 777th anniversary in 2017. It remained under Armenian control after the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020. Following the Azerbaijani offensive of September 19–20, 2023, Nagorno-Karabakh was dissolved and the entire population fled to Armenia. In early October 2023,

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1826-452: The gavit of the Holy Cross church of Haghpat Monastery . The portal on western facade of the gavit is richly decorated. The main church, named for John the Baptist , has a rectangular, cruciform plan with two-floored sacristies (chambers) on four corners. In its style, it is similar to the plans of the main churches of Geghard , Hovhannavank and Harichavank , also built in

1909-496: The 13th century. The church is prominent for its richly decorated 16-sided cupola . The bas-reliefs on its exterior depict the Crucifixion of Jesus , Mary with baby Jesus, Adam and Eve , two ktetors (patrons) holding the model of the church, geometrical figures, such as rosettes , head of a bull and an eagle. The bas-reliefs have been compared to the elaborate carvings of Aghtamar . The interior pendentives under

1992-513: The 13th to 16th centuries, though these women primarily worked out of their homes rather than religious institutions, as daughters and wives of scribes. Women were not only the producers of these texts, but could also be the consumers or commissioners of them. There were also women who worked as professional, secular scribes, including Clara Hätzlerin in 15th century Augsburg , who has at least nine surviving manuscripts signed by or attributed to her. Much as medieval libraries do not correspond to

2075-473: The 14th to the beginning of the 19th centuries) the monastery was an important centre of culture. The scriptorium of each monastery was a bastion of learning where illuminated manuscripts were being produced by monk-scribes, mostly Serbian liturgical books and Old Serbian Vita. hagiographies of kings and archbishops. Numerous scribes of the Serbian Orthodox Church books—at the term of the 16th and

2158-523: The 17th and 18th centuries Gandzasar became the center in the liberation efforts by Karabakh Armenian meliks , who were united around Catholicos Yesayi Hasan-Jalalyan (d. 1728). He was staunchly pro-Russian and in a 1701 letter signed by Karabakh and Syunik meliks , he asked Peter the Great to protect Armenians from Muslims. However, it was not until the early 1800s that the Russian Empire took control of

2241-425: The 17th century. On the eastern side there is a refectory , built circa 1689. The two-floored school building was erected in 1898. To the south of the monastery walls is the old cemetery, where priests, bishops and notable laypeople (such as meliks ) of the areas were buried. Anatoli L. Yakobson called Gandzasar an "encyclopedia" of Armenian architecture , while Bagrat Ulubabyan and M. S. Asatryan described it as

2324-513: The 5th-6th centuries (now at Armenia’s State History Museum in Yerevan). [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Scriptorium A scriptorium ( / s k r ɪ p ˈ t ɔːr i ə m / ) was a writing room in medieval European monasteries for the copying and illuminating of manuscripts by scribes . The term has perhaps been over-used—only some monasteries had special rooms set aside for scribes. Often they worked in

2407-503: The 6th century under the supervision of Cassiodorus at the Vivarium near Squillace in southern Italy contained a scriptorium, for the purpose of collecting, copying, and preserving texts. Cassiodorus' description of his monastery contained a purpose-built scriptorium, with a sundial , a water-clock , and a "perpetual lamp," that is, one that supplied itself with oil from a reservoir. The scriptorium would also have contained desks where

2490-603: The Cathedral after he bought Harich from a family representing the Pahlavuni dynasty. The narthex or zhamatun was built soon after, before 1219, by a vassal of the Zakarids , Vahram. The Cathedral is a cruciform church with two-story sacristies in each of the four extensions of the building. The tall 20-hedral drum of the cupola is of original style. Initially tent-roofed, it acquired triple columns on its facets and large rosettes in

2573-699: The Kalbajar region, is not Gandzasar, but Ganjasar, and has nothing to do with the Armenian Gregorian Church." Historians who have challenged the Azerbaijani state version of the region's local history, including Victor Schnirelmann , note that Caucasian Albania disappeared in the 10th century, and that the Armenian Church simply adopted the name for its easternmost diocese out of tradition. Schnirelmann notes that Azerbaijani historians intentionally omit

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2656-491: The Rule of Saint Ferréol , as prescribing that "He who does not turn up the earth with the plough ought to write the parchment with his fingers." As this implies, the labor required of a scribe was comparable to the exertion of agriculture and other outdoor work. Another of Montalembert's examples is of a scribal note along these lines: "He who does not know how to write imagines it to be no labour, but although these fingers only hold

2739-728: The ancient scribes and the supremacy of transcription to all other manual labor. This description of monastic writing is especially important because it was written after the first printing presses came into popular use. Trithemius addresses the competing technology when he writes, "The printed book is made of paper and, like paper, will quickly disappear. But the scribe working with parchment ensures lasting remembrance for himself and for his text". Trithemius also believes that there are works that are not being printed but are worth being copied. In his comparison of modern and medieval scholarship, James J. O'Donnell describes monastic study in this way: " [E]ach Psalm would have to be recited at least once

2822-460: The approach, that scriptoria developed in relative isolation, to the extent that paleographers are sometimes able to identify the product of each writing centre and to date it accordingly. By the start of the 13th century, secular workshops developed, where professional scribes stood at writing-desks to work the orders of customers, and during the Late Middle Ages the praxis of writing

2905-493: The architect of the order, cautioned, "Let the brethren take care the books they receive from the cupboard do not get soiled with smoke or dirt; books are as it were the everlasting food of our souls; we wish them to be most carefully kept and most zealously made." After the establishment of Manasija Monastery by Stefan Lazarević in the early 15th century, many educated monks have gathered there. They fostered copying and literary work that by its excellence and production changed

2988-410: The asphalting of the road leading to the church. Some controversy surrounded the tiling of the wall around the monastery in 2011. It was funded by Hayrapetyan and carried out by a company owned by Vladimir Hayrapetyan, his younger brother. While Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan said the wall was not medieval and did not have much architectural significance, therefore tiling was justified, critics argued it

3071-627: The attempted bombing of Gandzasar was not of any military importance and that its raid "appeared to be a deliberate attempt to attack the Armenian heritage in Karabakh." On August 31, 1992 Armenia's Defense Minister Vazgen Sargsyan and Serzh Sargsyan , the head of the self-defense committee of Karabakh Armenians, convened the first meeting of the region's commanders in one of the monastic cells of Gandzasar. On January 20, 1993 an air strike conducted by two Azerbaijani attack aircraft caused serious damage to

3154-620: The beginning of the 18th centuries—who worked in the Rača monastery are named in Serbian literature – "The Račans". . Among the monk-scribes the most renown are the illuminator Hieromonk Hristifor Račanin, Kiprijan Račanin , Jerotej Račanin , Teodor Račanin and Gavril Stefanović Venclović . These are well-known Serbian monks and writers that are the link between literary men and women of the late medieval ( Late Middle Ages ) and Baroque periods in art, architecture and literature in particular. Although it

3237-441: The context of Cistercian scriptoria, have been studied by Yolanta Załuska, L'enluminure et le scriptorium de Cîteaux au XIIe siècle (Brecht:Cîteaux) 1989. In Byzantium or Eastern Roman Empire learning maintained importance and numerous monastic 'scriptoria' were known for producing Bible/Gospel illuminations, along with workshops that copied numerous classical and Hellenistic works. Records show that one such monastic community

3320-520: The crowd attending." Gandzasar served as seat of the bishop before it was moved to Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shusha (Shushi) in 1998. Gandzasar was attacked several times during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War . On July 6, 1991 Soviet soldiers and OMON (special police) officers raided Gandzasar allegedly in search of guns. They checked papers and conducted a thorough search, including in

3403-430: The cylindrical dome in the interior are decorated with geometrical ornaments such as stars, circles and squares, plants such as spiral shoots , palmettes . Each side of the pendentive has high reliefs depicting head of a sheep, heads of a bull and anthropomorphic figures. According to Yakobson, sheep and bulls were considered holy animals in this period and are used as protectors of the structure. Since its foundation

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3486-456: The desirability of scriptoria within a wider body of monastic structures at the beginning of the 9th century. There is evidence that in the late 13th century, the Cistercians would allow certain monks to perform their writing in a small cell "which could not... contain more than one person". These cells were called scriptoria because of the copying done there, even though their primary function

3569-521: The early sixth century (the first European monastic writing dates from 517), they defined European literary culture and selectively preserved the literary history of the West. Monks copied Jerome's Latin Vulgate Bible and the commentaries and letters of early Church Fathers for missionary purposes as well as for use within the monastery. In the copying process, there was typically a division of labor among

3652-465: The eighth responsory , holding the lantern aloft when the abbot read, and approving all material to be read aloud in church, chapter, and refectory . While at Vivarium c. 540–548, Cassiodorus wrote a commentary on the Psalms entitled Expositio Psalmorum as an introduction to the Psalms for individuals seeking to enter the monastic community. The work had a broad appeal outside of Cassiodorus' monastery as

3735-474: The exalted sketches from Umberto Eco 's The Name of the Rose , it seems that ancient written accounts, as well as surviving buildings, and archaeological excavations do not invariably attest to the evidence of scriptoria. Scriptoria, in the physical sense of a room set aside for the purpose, perhaps mostly existed in response to specific scribal projects; for example, when a monastic (and) or regal institution wished

3818-576: The fact that Gandzasar is a typical example of Armenian architecture of 10th-13th centuries, as well as the numerous Armenian inscriptions on its walls. Thomas de Waal noted that in a 1997 pamphlet titled "The Albanian Monuments of Karabakh" by Igrar Aliyev and Kamil Mamedzade "carefully left out all the Armenian writing" in the depiction of the façade of Gandzasar on its cover. Rouben Galichian notes that Gandzasar, though presented in Azerbaijan as supposedly an "Albanian-Azerbaijani" historic monastery and

3901-428: The graveyard. Fierce fighting took place around Gandzasar in 1992, when Azerbaijan besieged the area. The Armenians broke the siege, which saved Gandzasar and enhanced its spiritual status, wrote Thomas de Waal . On August 16, 1992 some of the outlying buildings within the monastery complex were destroyed as a result of Azerbaijani bombardment by helicopters, which intentionally targeted the church. Corley writes that

3984-669: The history of the South Slavic literature and languages spreading its influence all over the Orthodox Balkans . One of the most famous scholars of the so-called School of Resava was Constantine the Philosopher /Konstantin Filozof/, an influential writer and biographer of the founder of the school (Stefan Lazarević). During the Turkish invasions of the Serbian lands (which lasted from the end of

4067-530: The inscriptions have been "falsified." Armenian archaeologist and historian Hamlet Petrosyan and the organization Monument Watch responded to the claims. Armenia's representative to UNESCO, Christian Ter-Stepanian accused Azerbaijan of an attempt to "appropriate and distort the identity of Gandzasar, one of the most famous medieval Armenian monasteries." In a Time article, Christina Maranci warned that its Armenian inscriptions, khachkars, and tombstones are endangered under Azerbaijani control. The monastery

4150-523: The inspired words of scripture because of grammatical or stylistic concerns. He declared "every work of the Lord written by the scribe is a wound inflicted on Satan", for "by reading the Divine Scripture he wholesomely instructs his own mind and by copying the precepts of the Lord he spreads them far and wide". It is important to note that Cassiodorus did include the classical texts of ancient Rome and Greece in

4233-560: The lack of control and communication from a central pontificate" and part of various local strategies in an Armenia dominated by foreign and Islamic rule to "preserve some semblance of religious authority among the people". In the 16th century it became subordinate to the Etchmiadzin catholicosate . According to contemporary sources, in early 1700s the patriarch of Gandzasar had authority over some 900 villages with hundreds of households in each, composed of peasant and merchant Armenians. In

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4316-425: The monasteries provided a valuable medium of exchange. Comparisons of characteristic regional, periodic as well as contextual styles of handwriting do reveal social and cultural connections among them, as new hands developed and were disseminated by travelling individuals, respectively what these individuals represented, and by the examples of manuscripts that passed from one cloister to another. Recent studies follow

4399-496: The monastery library or in their own rooms. Most medieval images of scribing show single figures in well-appointed studies, although these are generally author portraits of well-known authors or translators. Increasingly, lay scribes and illuminators from outside the monastery also assisted the clerical scribes. By the later Middle Ages secular manuscript workshops were common, and many monasteries bought in more books than they produced themselves. When monastic institutions arose in

4482-612: The monastery of Montecassino , developed one of the most influential scriptoria, at its acme in the 11th century, which made the abbey "the greatest center of book production in South Italy in the High Middle Ages". Here was developed and perfected the characteristic "Cassinese" Beneventan script under Abbot Desiderius . The Rule of Saint Benedict does explicitly call for monks to have ready access to books during two hours of compulsory daily reading and during Lent , when each monk

4565-474: The monastery was for centuries a center of education and manuscript production. It served as the burial place of Armenian princes of Khachen. Gandzasar is the principal historic tourist attraction in all of Karabakh (Artsakh) and one of the top destinations overall. It is also a center of pilgrimage as the region's main historic cathedral both for Karabakh Armenians and tourists (of Armenian ancestry). Thomas de Waal noted as early as 1997 that Gandzasar,

4648-404: The monastery, killed several people nearby and wounded a priest. Following the war, the monastery was completely refurbished through the funding of Russia-based businessman and philanthropist Levon Hayrapetyan  [ hy ] , a native of Vank. Restoration works, which lasted from 2000 to 2002, included restoration of the altar, gavit, and tiling of the floor. Hayrapetyan also funded

4731-402: The monastic library. This was probably because of his upbringing, but was, nonetheless, unusual for a monastery of the time. When his monks copied these texts, Cassiodorus encouraged them to amend texts for both grammar and style. The more famous monastic treatise of the 7th century, Saint Benedict of Nursia 's Rule , fails to mention the labor of transcription by name, though his institution,

4814-495: The monks could sit and copy texts, as well as the necessary ink wells, penknives, and quills. Cassiodorus also established a library where, at the end of the Roman Empire , he attempted to bring Greek learning to Latin readers and to preserve texts both sacred and secular for future generations. As its unofficial librarian, Cassiodorus collected as many manuscripts as he could, he also wrote treatises aimed at instructing his monks in

4897-462: The monks who readied the parchment for copying by smoothing and chalking the surface, those who ruled the parchment and copied the text, and those who illuminated the text. Sometimes a single monk would engage in all of these stages to prepare a manuscript. The illuminators of manuscripts worked in collaboration with scribes in intricate varieties of interaction that preclude any simple understanding of monastic manuscript production. The products of

4980-575: The most famous church in Karabakh, "has acquired a mythical status in Karabakh." Felix Corley wrote that it is, along with Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi (Shusha), a powerful symbol of history and identity of Karabakh Armenians regardless their religiosity. A branch of the Matenadaran , the Yerevan-based museum and research institute of manuscripts, was established at the monastery in 2015. During

5063-420: The oratory as a place for silent, reverent prayer actually hints at the existence of a scriptorium. In Chapter 52 of his Rule, Benedict's warns: "Let the oratory be what it is called, and let nothing else be done or stored there". But condatur translates both as stored and to compose or write, thus leaving the question of Benedict's intentions for manuscript production ambiguous. The earliest commentaries on

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5146-484: The pen, the whole body grows weary." An undated Cistercian ordinance, ranging in date from 1119–52 (Załuska 1989) prescribed literae unius coloris et non depictae ("letters of one color and not ornamented"), that spread with varying degrees of literalness in parallel with the Cistercian order itself, through the priories of Burgundy and beyond. In 1134, the Cistercian order declared that the monks were to keep silent in

5229-525: The piers which, together with platbands, form an unusual decorative girder around the middle of the drum height. Later, the cupola drum of the Gandzasar Monastery (1216-1238) was decorated in the same way. The eastern facade of the Cathedral features a relief carving depicting the Zakarian brothers holding a model of the Cathedral in their hands. This theme can be found in many other Armenian churches of

5312-562: The proper uses of texts. In the end, however, the library at the Vivarium was dispersed and lost, though it was still active around 630. The scriptoria of the Cistercian order seem to have been similar to those of the Benedictines. The mother house at Cîteaux , one of the best-documented high-medieval scriptoria, developed a severe "house style" in the first half of the 12th century. The 12th-century scriptorium of Cîteaux and its products, in

5395-605: The region. The Karabakh Khanate eventually came under complete Russian control through the Treaty of Gulistan . Through the 1836 regulation by the Russian authorities, known as Polozhenie , Gandzasar ceased to be the seat of the diocese of Artsakh, which was moved to Shusha. It was gradually abandoned and became dilapidated by the late 19th century. Gandzasar was closed down by the Soviet authorities no later than 1930. The diocese of Artsakh

5478-404: The routines of the community and served as work for hands and minds otherwise idle, but also produced a marketable end-product. Saint Jerome stated that the products of the scriptorium could be a source of revenue for the monastic community, but Benedict cautioned, "If there be skilled workmen in the monastery, let them work at their art in all humility". In the earliest Benedictine monasteries,

5561-505: The same time in different parts of Armenia, and were endowed with similar compositional and decorative characteristics (another example—Cathedral of the Hovhannavank Monastery ). Those include umbrella-shaped dome, cruciform floor plan, narthex (often with stalactite-ornamented ceiling), and high-relief of a large cross on one of church’s walls. The privileges granted by the princes to the monastery contributed towards its becoming

5644-427: The scriptorium as they should in the cloister . Manuscript-writing was a laborious process in an ill-lit environment that could damage one's health. One prior complained in the tenth century: " Only try to do it yourself and you will learn how arduous is the writer's task. It dims your eyes, makes your back ache, and knits your chest and belly together. It is a terrible ordeal for the whole body ". The director of

5727-562: The site. The main church was built between 1216 and 1238 by Hasan-Jalal Dawla, the Armenian prince of Inner Khachen and the patriarch of the House of Hasan-Jalalyan . It was consecrated on July 22, 1240, on the Feast of the Transfiguration ( Vardavar ) in attendance of some 700 priests. The gavit ( narthex ), to the west of the church, was started in 1240 and completed in 1266 by Atabek,

5810-577: The son of Hasan-Jalal and his wife, Mamkan. Kirakos Gandzaketsi , a contemporary historian, described the construction of the church in his History of Armenia . Gandzasar became the seat of the Catholicosate of (Caucasian) Albania , a see of the Armenian Apostolic Church , in the late 14th century. Rouben Paul Adalian considers the foundation of the see a result of an ancient bishopric seeking "ecclesiastical autonomy to compensate for

5893-411: The subject of monastic study and reflection. Abbot Johannes Trithemius of Sponheim wrote a letter, De Laude Scriptorum (In Praise of Scribes), to Gerlach, Abbot of Deutz in 1492 to describe for monks the merits of copying texts. Trithemius contends that the copying of texts is central to the model of monastic education, arguing that transcription enables the monk to more deeply contemplate and come to

5976-676: The time e.g. on the Memorial Cathedral of the Dadivank Monastery in Nagorno Karabakh , as well as on main churches of the Sanahin and Haghartsin monasteries in Armenia. This relief was covered in 1895 with a marble plaque featuring Madonna ; when the plaque was removed, the original carving showed beneath. Haritchavank’s Cathedral belongs to the category of " Gandzasar -style" ecclesiastical edifices that were built approximately at

6059-400: The transcription of texts (since the charter house was rarely heated). The Benedictine Plan of St. Gall is a sketch of an idealised monastery dating from 819–826, which shows the scriptorium and library attached to the northeast corner of the main body of the church; this is not reflected by the evidence of surviving monasteries. Although the purpose of the plan is unknown, it clearly shows

6142-468: The verses are recited again the whole phalanx of Cassiodorian erudition springs up in support of the content of the sacred text ". In this way, the monks of the Middle Ages came to intimately know and experience the texts that they copied. The act of transcription became an act of meditation and prayer, not a simple replication of letters. Gandzasar monastery Gandzasar ( Armenian : Գանձասար )

6225-451: The writing room was actually a corridor open to the central quadrangle of the cloister . The space could accommodate about twelve monks, who were protected from the elements only by the wall behind them and the vaulting above. Monasteries built later in the Middle Ages placed the scriptorium inside, near the heat of the kitchen or next to the calefactory . The warmth of the later scriptoria served as an incentive for unwilling monks to work on

6308-411: Was Galla Placidia (died 450), paired rectangular chambers flanking the apse, accessible only from each aisle, have been interpreted as paired (Latin and Greek) libraries and perhaps scriptoria. The well-lit niches half a meter deep, provisions for hypocausts beneath the floors to keep the spaces dry, have prototypes in the architecture of Roman libraries. The monastery built in the second quarter of

6391-402: Was becoming not only confined to being generally a monastic or regal activity. However, the practical consequences of private workshops, and as well the invention of the printing press vis-a-vis monastic scriptoria is a complex theme. There is also evidence that women scribes, in religious or secular contexts, produced texts in the medieval period . Archaeologists identified lapis lazuli ,

6474-457: Was first mentioned in written records by the tenth century Catholicos Anania of Moks (r. 946-968), who listed Sargis, a monk from Gandzasar, among the participants of a 949 council convened in Khachen to reconcile Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Armenians. Khachkars dated 1174, 1182, and 1202 have been found around the monastery, which also point to the existence of a church or monastery at

6557-488: Was not as a writing room. The Carthusians viewed copying religious texts as their missionary work to the greater Church ; the strict solitude of the Carthusian order necessitated that the manual labor of the monks be practiced within their individual cells, thus many monks engaged in the transcription of texts. In fact, each cell was equipped as a copy room, with parchment, quill, inkwell, and ruler. Guigues du Pin, or Guigo,

6640-461: Was part of the historic complex. On October 16, 2008 a mass wedding , sponsored by Levon Hayrapetyan took place in Karabakh. Some 700 couples got married on that day, 500 of whom married at Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi and 200 at Gandzasar. On April 13, 2016 Catholicos Karekin II and Catholicos of Cilicia Aram I delivered a prayer for peace and safety of Nagorno-Karabakh. It came days after

6723-421: Was reestablished in 1989. Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan was named its primate. Due to his efforts, Gandzasar reopened on October 1, 1989 after six months of renovations. The Soviet government had given permission, while that of Soviet Azerbaijan had not. Gandzasar became the first church to be reopened after decades of suppression. According to Zori Balayan several KGB agents "could [have been] spotted among

6806-436: Was that of Mount Athos , which maintained a variety of illuminated manuscripts and ultimately accumulated over 10,000 books. Cassiodorus' contemporary, Benedict of Nursia , allowed his monks to read the great works of the pagans in the monastery he founded at Monte Cassino in 529. The creation of a library here initiated the tradition of Benedictine scriptoria, where the copying of texts not only provided materials needed in

6889-613: Was the seat of the Albanian Catholicosate of the Armenian Apostolic Church. This theory was adopted and promoted by other Azerbaijani historians, such as Davud Akhundov, and since been adopted by Azerbaijan's authorities. For instance, in 2017, Hikmet Hajiyev , Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, stated that Gandzasar is an "Albanian Christian temple, occupied by the Armenian armed forces in

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