Saturday, March 29, 2014

Richard G. Hovannisian, "Armenian Van/Vaspurakan"

Richard G. Hovannisian, "Armenian Van/Vaspurakan" 
English | 2000 | ISBN: 1568591306 | pages: 322



The UCLA conference series "Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces" has been organized to explore the historical, political, cultural, religious, social, and economic legacy of a people rooted on the Armenian Plateau for three millennia. Armenian Van/Vaspurakan is the first of the conference proceedings to be published, in view of the fact that the area around Lake Van is the cradle of Armenian civilization.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

"The Armenian Gospels of Gladzor: The Life of Christ Illuminated"


Thomas F. Mathews, Alice Taylor, "The Armenian Gospels of Gladzor: The Life of Christ Illuminated"

Publisher: J. Paul Getty | 2001 | ISBN: 0892366273 | English | 128 pages |



The magnificent book known as the Gladzor Gospels is a masterpiece of fourteenth-century Armenian art. Now at the Charles E. Young Research Library at the University of California, Los Angeles, it is one of the great Armenian manuscripts in an American collection.

Written and decorated in about 1300 by learned monks in the Armenian province of Siunik’, the Gospel book offers significant insight into Armenian religious beliefs and practices of the time. The text—the four Gospel accounts of the life of Christ—is embellished by a remarkable program of brilliantly colored illumination that includes dozens of scenes from the life of Christ, as well as portraits of the text’s saintly authors. The text’s elaborate illumination also brings to life a vibrant artistic center, the Monastery of Gladzor, which long ago disappeared.

The Armenian Gospels of Gladzor includes sixty color reproductions of the manuscript’s illuminated pages, ten black-and-white illustrations, and two maps, along with an essay that explores the book’s richness and theological complexity.

Table of contents
Map
Foreword
Deborah Gribbon
Preface
Thomas Kren
Chapter One: Making an Illuminated Manuscript
Chapter Two: Armenia under the Mongols
Chapter Three: The Life of Christ in Miniature
Chapter Four: Conclusion
Plates
Glossary
Suggestions for Further Reading
Index

About the Authors
Thomas F. Mathews is the John Langeloth Loeb Professor of the History of Art at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. His books include The Clash of Gods: A Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art (1993, revised 1999) and Byzantium: From Antiquity to the Renaissance (1998).

Alice Taylor is the Chair of the Humanities and Fine Arts Division at West Los Angeles College. Among her works is Book Arts of Isfahan, published by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1995. In addition to Armenian medieval culture, her research involves the collection and display of Early Christian art, and eighteenth-century Russian visual culture.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Arnold Krammer, "War Crimes, Genocide, and the Law: A Guide to the Issues"

Arnold Krammer, "War Crimes, Genocide, and the Law: A Guide to the Issues" 
English | 2010 | ISBN: 0313359377 |


The issue of government-sanctioned torture is very much a part of today's headlines, but it is nothing new. In 1915, nearly 800,000 Armenians were murdered by the Turks and no one was punished. The same number of people perished in the 1994 Rwanda genocide—in just 100 days. In four years, between 1975 and 1979, Cambodia's Pol Pot regime was responsible for the deaths of just under two million people.

Contents 
 Acknowledgments    
 Chapter 1 War Crimes in History               1
 Chapter 2 Searching for the Law
 Chapter 3 The Worst War Crime of All
 Chapter 4 Punishment, at Last
 Chapter 5 The Rules Are Changing 
 Appendix—Primary Documents 
 Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV), October 18, 1907
 International Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Geneva, July 27, 1929
 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations, 1948
 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, August 12, 1949 (Geneva Convention III)
 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), Geneva, July 1977
 United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1984
 Memorandum for John A. Rizzo, Acting General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency, from Offi ce of the Assistant Attorney General, August 1, 2002 
 Bibliography
 Index

P. Paschal Augher, "A Grammar Armenian and English"

P. Paschal Augher and Lord Bayron, "A Grammar Armenian and English"
Armeanian Monastery of St. Lazarus Venice | 1873 | English/Armenian | 160 pages |


Digitized by Internet Archive in 2008
with funding from Microsoft Corporation



Arto der Haroutunian, "Middle Eastern Cookery"

Arto der Haroutunian, "Middle Eastern Cookery"
English | 2011-03-20 | ISBN: 1906502943 | 384 pages |



All Arto der Haroutunian's twelve cookbooks written in the 1980s became classics; it was his belief that the rich culinary tradition of the Middle East is the main source of many of our Western cuisines and his books were intended as an introduction to that tradition. 

His Middle Eastern Cookery is regarded as the seminal work on the subject but it has been out of print for twenty years with second hand copies on offer for over four hundred pounds, such was its scarcity and popularity. At last here in a new redesigned edition is the Middle Eastern cookbook that everyone wants. It is a book containing every possible recipe from the Middle East -there are dishes from the plains of Georgia, from Afganistan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Persia and Armenia. 

It is written in the same wonderful style as his other classic cookbooks; peppered with anecdotes on life, food and culture. He guides us first round the mezze table and then leads us on to recipes for soups, salads, savouries, pilaffs, kebabs, casseroles and grills that make the best use of meat, fish and poultry. He teaches the cook about the different spices that are favoured by different countries - mint for Armenia, cumin for Iran and with each recipe comes a piece of history or a fable which makes this a book to read as well as an unequalled collection of recipes. Arto der Haroutunian was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1940 and grew up in the Levant, but came to England as a child and remained here for most of his life. In 1970, in partnership with his brother, he opened the first Armenian restaurant in Manchester which eventually became a successful chain of six restaurants and two hotels. He died in 1987 at the untimely age of 47 but is survived by his wife and son who still live in Manchester. As well as his passion for cooking, Arto was a painter of international reputation, a composer and translator of Turkish, Arab, Persian and Armenian authors. He was a true polymath.

Vasily Grossman, "An Armenian Sketchbook"

Vasily Grossman, "An Armenian Sketchbook" 
English | ISBN: 0857052357, 1590176189 | 2013 | 146 pages |



Few writers had to confront so many of the last century's mass tragedies as Vasily Grossman. He is likely to be remembered, above all, for the terrifying clarity with which he writes about the Shoah, the Battle of Stalingrad and the Terror Famine in the Ukraine. 

An Armenian Sketchbook, however, shows us a very different Grossman; it is notable for its warmth, its sense of fun and for the benign humility that is always to be found in his writing. 

After the 'arrest' - as Grossman always put it - of Life and Fate, Grossman took on the task of editing a literal Russian translation of a lengthy Armenian novel. The novel was of little interest to him, but he was glad of an excuse to travel to Armenia. This is his account of the two months he spent there. 

It is by far the most personal and intimate of Grossman's works, with an air of absolute spontaneity, as though Grossman is simply chatting to the reader about his impressions of Armenia - its mountains, its ancient churches and its people.

Vreg Nersessian, "Treasures from the Ark: 1700 Years of Armenian Christian Art"

Vreg Nersessian, "Treasures from the Ark: 1700 Years of Armenian Christian Art"
Publisher: J. Paul Getty | 2001 | ISBN: 0892366397 | English| 240 pages

Armenia was the first country to recognize Christianity as the official state religion in 301 AD, twelve years before Constantine’s decree granting tolerance to Christianity within the Roman Empire. Ever since, Armenia has claimed the privilege of being the first Christian nation, and the wealth of Christian art produced in Armenia since then is testimony to the fundamental importance of the Christian faith to the Armenian people.

This extensive new survey of Armenian Christian art, published to accompany a major exhibition at The British Library, celebrates the Christian art tradition in Armenia during the last 1700 years. The extraordinary quality and range of Armenian art that is documented here includes sculpture, metalwork, textiles, ceramics, wood carvings and illuminated manuscripts and has been drawn together from collections throughout the world.

In his authoritative text, Dr. Vrej Nersessian, Curator at The British Library, charts the development of Christianity in Armenia. This fascinating history is essential to an understanding of the art and religious tradition of Armenia, a country in which the sense of the sacred extends well beyond the purely religious, infiltrating the entire fabric of Armenian affairs to create a fascinating culture.

This sumptuously illustrated book will be of immense value to anyone with an interest in Byzantine art and culture, the history of Christianity, and the history of Armenia and the Middle Orient.

Table of contents
Message from His Holiness Garegin II
Message from the Archbishop of Canterbury Acknowledgements
Introduction by Professor Robin Cormack
Chapter One: The Conversion of Armenia to Christianity
The Land
The Spread of Christianity in Armenia
The Date of Armenia’s Conversion to Christianity
Apostolicity and Christian Missions
Monasticism and the Role of the Armenian Monasteries in Armenian Christianity
Chapter Two: The Christological Position of the Armenian Church
The Council of Chalcedon
The Armenian Church and the Council of Chalcedon
Chapter Three: The Armenian Church within Christendom
Armenian-Byzantine Church Relations
Armenian-Byzantine Church Relations at the Time of the Armenian Cilician Kingdom
The Armenian Church and the Papacy at the Time of the Armenian Cilician Kingdom
The Armenian Church in Contemporary Times
Chapter Four: Sacred Art in Theology and Worship
The Holy Scriptures
The Theology of Armenian Christian Art Portraits
The Canon Tables: Theology of Colour and Ornamentation
The Nature of Image Veneration in Armenia
Notes
Catalogue
Sculpture
Metalworks
Textiles
Carved Wood
Ceramics
Firmans
Manuscripts
Bibliography
Exhibition Catalogues
Lenders to the Exhibition
Index

About the Author
Dr. Vrej Nersessian is Curator of Armenian Collections at the British Library. His previous publications include Catalogue of Early Armenian Books (The British Library, 1980), Armenian Illuminated Gospel Books (The British Library 1987), Armenia (World Bibliographical Series vol. l63; Clio Press, 1993), A Bibliography of Articles on Armenian Studies in Western Journals 1869-1995 (Curzon Press, 1997) and the Bible in the Armenian Tradition (The British Library, 2001). He is curator of the exhibition Treasures from the Ark: 1700 Years of Armenian Christian Art.