MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION ASSOCIATED WITH HAMSEN* As a complex art form requiring the application of a number of spe- cialized skills for its creation and the legacy of a literary culture which gave it birth and sustained its existence into modem times, avidly in- scribing upon it the major and minor incidents of its passage, the manu- script affords a much wider range of insights into political, religious, economic, demographic and other aspects of society than most cultural artifacts. With the aid of codicology we can peal back the successive layers of written records to trace the book's peregrinations along the thoroughfares of war, commercial transactions, and pious donations back to its constitutive elements of wood, leather, hide, paper, silver, pigments, and the material culture of its place of origin. Although Hamsen represents a rather isolated enclave inland from the Trapezuntine coast and surrounded by thickly forested mountain chains, which allowed it to preserve its distinctive identity for so long, a perusal of manuscript catalogues reveals the wide dispersion its codices have achieved1. They form part of the four great collections of the Mastoc‘ Matenadaran in Erevan2, the Mkhitarist libraries of Venice and Vienna3, * I wish to thank Hovann Simonian for his bibliographic assistance in completing this study. 1 For further details, see T‘.X. HAKOBYAN et al., Hayastani ev harakic‘ srjanneri te¥anunneri bararan [Dictionary of Toponyms of Armenia and Adjacent Regions], vol. 3, Erevan, 1991, p. 327-328 (= HAKOBYAN, Hayastani ev harakic‘). For the region's precise borders according to Ottoman defters, see R.W. EDWARDS, Hamsen: An Armenian En- clave in the Byzanto-Georgian Pontos. A Survey of Literary and Non-literary Sources, in Le Muséon, 101 (1988), p. 414 (= EDWARDS, Hamsen). For its location, see R.H. HEWSEN, Armenia: A Historical Atlas, Chicago, 2001, p. 211, map 201, and the overview on p. 212 (= HEWSEN, Armenia: A Historical Atlas). 2 O. EGANYAN et al., C‘uc‘ak jeragrac‘ Mastoc‘i anvan Matenadarani [Catalogue of Manuscripts of the Mastoc‘ Matenadaran], 2 vols., Erevan, 1965, 1970 (= EGANYAN, C‘uc‘ak jeragrac‘). 3 For Venice, see B. SARGISEAN et al., Mayr c‘uc‘ak hayeren jeragrac‘ Matenadara- nin Mxit‘areanc‘ i Venetik [Grand Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the Library of the Mkhitarists in Venice], vol. 3, Venice, 1966 (= SARGISEAN, Mayr c‘uc‘ak) and S. C‘EMC‘EMEAN, Mayr c‘uc‘ak hayeren jeragrac‘ Matenadaranin Mxit‘areanc‘ i Venetik [Grand Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the Library of the Mkhitarists in Ven- ice], vol. 4, Venice, 1993 (= C‘EMC‘EMEAN, Mayr c‘uc‘ak). Since the Venice catalogue is not yet complete, the potential exists for other manuscripts to come to light, as also in other public and private collections, which still await cataloguing. For Vienna, see Y. TASEAN, C‘uc‘ak hayeren jeragrac‘ Matenadaranin Mxit‘areanc‘ i Vienna [Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the Library of the Mkhitarists in Vienna], vol. 1, Vienna, 1895 (= TASEAN, C‘uc‘ak ) and A. SEK‘ULEAN, C‘uc‘ak hayeren jeragrac‘ Matenadaranin Mxit‘areanc‘ i Vienna [Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the Library of the Mkhitarists in Vienna], vol. 3, Vienna, 1983 (= SEK‘ULEAN, C‘uc‘ak). 152 S.P. COWE and the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem4, as well as the smaller, but still significant, holdings of the British Library5. One of them has found its way to the Free Library of Philadelphia6, another to the Oriental Insti- tute of St. Petersburg7, a third was catalogued in a private collection in Paris in 19478. The current whereabouts of a further codex cannot be ascertained: it was catalogued in St. Sargis (Sergius) Church of the village of Ge¥a- xor near Erzurum in 19129. The process by which these manuscripts reached their present destinations will be discussed toward the end of the study. The precise topical data manuscript colophons or memorials adduce act as a crucial supplement to the broader coverage of general histo- ries10. Their witness becomes all the more vital in the case of Hamsen since the district never became the subject of a more elaborate historical treatment devoted either to its noble families or regional significance11. 4 N. PO™AREAN, Mayr c‘uc‘ak jeragrac‘ Srboc‘ Yakobeanc‘ [Grand Catalogue of the Manuscripts of the Saint James], vol. 5, Jerusalem, 1971, p. 417-418 (= PO™AREAN, Mayr c‘uc‘ak jeragrac‘). 5 F.C. CONYBEARE, A Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the British Museum, London, 1913 (= CONYBEARE, Catalogue). 6 A.K. SANJIAN, A Catalogue of Medieval Armenian Manuscripts in the United States, Berkeley, 1976, p. 677-684 (= SANJIAN, Catalogue). 7 I wish to express my thanks to Prof. Karen Yuzbasyan and Hovann H. Simonian for access to a pre-publication text of the colophon of St. Petersburg Oriental Institute Arme- nian manuscript A 72. 8 A. SIWRMEEAN, Mayr c‘uc‘ak hayeren jeragrac‘ Ewropayi masnawor hawak‘um- neru [Grand Catalogue of Armenian Manuscripts of Europe in Private Collections], Paris, 1950, p. 54-69. 9 Y. K‘OSEAN, C‘uc‘ak hayeren jeragrac‘ Arcnean Varzarani ew Karnoy giw¥eru [Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the Arcnean College and the Villages of Karin (Erzurum)], Vienna, 1964, p. 66-67 (= K‘OSEAN, C‘uc‘ak hayeren jeragrac‘). 10 For a study of the historical significance of such data, see A.K. SANJIAN, Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts 1301-1480, Cambridge MA, 1969. 11 With this situation we might contrast the coverage of Araruni clan history in Vaspurakan provided by T‘ovma Arcruni and his continuators and that of the province of Siwnik‘ and its later princely house of the Orbelians composed by its learned scion Arch- bishop Step'anos Orbelian. For further details, see R.W. THOMSON, A Bibliography of Classical Armenian Literature to 1500 AD, Turnhout, 1995, p. 200-201, 204-205 (= THOMSON, Bibliography). Of the references to events in Hamsen by Armenian chroni- clers, one might cite the following entry by an anonymous eighteenth century compiler with regard to the year 1461: In this year Sahali seized the youth Vek‘e, son of Paron Vard, Lord of Hamsen, and handed him to Sofi, whom they called sheikh. And in the same year Sultan Muhammad took Trebizond with his hands by sea and land in the month of August. See N. PO™AREAN, Zamanakagrut‘yun (XI-XVIII dd.) [Chronicle (11th-18th Cents.)], in Banber Matenadarani, 9 (1969), p. 269 (= PO™AREAN, Zamanakagrut‘yun (XI-XVIII dd.)). See H. OSKEAN, C‘uc‘ak hayeren jeragrac‘ Matenadaranin Mxit‘areanc‘ i Vienna [Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the Library of the Mkhitarists in Vienna], vol. 2, Vienna, 1963, p. 670-672. Additional information on Hamsen is con- tained of folios 143v-144r of a geographical manuscript of 1831, on which see SEK‘ULEAN, C‘uc‘ak, p. 283. MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION ASSOCIATED WITH HAMSEN 153 Consequently, we owe much of our knowledge of the area's civil and ec- clesiastical administration to the details gleaned from these primary sources12. Unfortunately, the information they now offer does not assist us in reconsructing the origins of the Amatuni principality in the final quarter of the eighth century13. An early Mastoc‘ (ritual book) of the ninth or tenth century that later belonged to a Hamsenc‘i, subject to the wear and tear of continued use, to which the beginning and end of the book are naturally more liable, is now incomplete, lacking the main colophon, and hence of little historical significance, though extremely important in researching the development of the Armenian sacraments and various sacramentary rites14. Chronologically the second manuscript pertaining to Hamsen to be preserved is a Gospel of 1240, which was copied in Rome by the scribe Vanakan at the request of the priest Step'annos Hamsinec‘i15. The infor- mation the colophon discloses concerning the latter is quite fascinating: it suggests that he was a member of an Armenian monastic brotherhood of the ‘voluntary poor' there with a hospice and Church of the Mother of God under the direction of Sargis. This evidence predates the main in- flux of Armenian monks to Italy by some thirty years16. It is uncertain whether the book ever reached Asia Minor. On the contrary, its utility lies more in its vignette of the distant connections Hamsenc‘is main- tained at this time. After a hiatus in the fourteenth century17, manuscript production is at- tested directly in the Hamsen region over the next three centuries with 12 EDWARDS, Hamsen, p. 408-414. 13 For details, see HAKOBYAN, Hayastani ev harakic‘, p. 327; EDWARDS, Hamsen, p. 404; L. PETROSYAN, art. Hamsenc‘iner [Hamsenc‘ is], in Haykakan sovetakan hanragi- taran [Armenian Soviet Encyclopaedia], vol. 6, Erevan, 1980, p. 119 (= PETROSYAN, art. Hamsenc‘iner). 14 For a full description, see SARGISEAN, Mayr c‘uc‘ak, coll. 1- 48. 15 A.S. MAT‘EVOSYAN (ed.), Hayeren jeragreri hisatakaranner zhg dar [Armenian Manuscript Colophons: 13th Century], Erevan, 1984, p. 218-219. 16 For details of the early Armenian community in Italy, see L.B. ZEKIYAN, Le colonie armene del Medioevo in Italia e le relazioni culturali italo-armene (Materiale per la Storia degli armeni in Italia, in Atti del Primo Simposio internazionale di Arte Armena, Venice, 1978, p. 803 sq. For papal relations with the community, see S.P. COWE, The Role of Correspondence in Elucidating the Intensification of Latin-Armenian Ecclesiastical In- terchange in the First Quarter of the Fourteenth Century, in Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies, 13 (2004), p. 53, n. 13 (= COWE, The Role of Correspondence) and J. RICHARD, La Papauté et les missions d’Orient au Moyen-Âge (XIIIe- XVe siècles), Rome, 1977, p.