LITURGICAL HYMN BOOK

Manuscript on paper, 372ff, made at Çüngüş – 1591.

LITURGICAL HYMN BOOK

Manuscript on paper, 372ff, made at Çüngüş – 1591.

Version intégrale sur la BVMM (IRHT-CNRS)

H 105mm / W 80mm (Ms.056)

A COLLECTION OF LITURGICAL SONGS

This collection of festive liturgical hymns (in Armenian–Ergaran) was transcribed in 1591, as indicated in the colophon, at Küngüs, a bishopric located between Diarbekir and Malatya, in southeast of modern Turkey. The small format of the manuscript indicates that it was intended for private use, but it is notable for the elaborate decoration and the abundance of painted ornaments illuminated with gold. Each major section, which in principle follows the order of the liturgical calendar, is marked with gold and colored vignettes. Each hymn begins with an ornate letter followed by a line of gold text, and the titles and second line are in red. The collection includes two full-page paintings, of Joachim and Anne, addressing the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and Pentecost, prefacing the corresponding ode. Finally, some thirty marginal miniatures accompany the songs, placed at the beginning and serving as handy visual cues. Some recall stories, such as those of Adam and Eve, while others represent the saints commemorated, such as St. Joachim and Anna.

The Armenian hymns open with the Canon of the Birth of the Virgin Mary: Canon of the Magnificat and Wonderful Birth of Our Lady of the Virgin by? Joachim and Anna. Opposite this canon is a full-page illustration of Mary’s parents, Joachim and Anna (folio 3v°).

While the hymn is devoted to the glorification of the Virgin Mary, the illumination shows the prayer of Anna, an episode taken from the apocryphal Gospel of the Childhood of Christ, or the Protoevangelium of James the Armenian translation of which is from a very early period. According to the Armenian version, Anna, seeing a nest of sparrows in the branches of a laurel tree, is distressed in her garden because of its barrenness and cries out to the Lord. Joachim, in turn, prays in the desert where he is with his flock. He asks God to grant him a child as He did for his ancestor, the patriarch Abraham. An angel appears to Joachim and then to Anna and tells them that the Lord will answer their prayers. The couple, each warned in turn, joyfully meet at the gate of Jerusalem.

In our illumination, Anna is praying in her garden. Behind her stands Joachim framed architecturally. Western and Byzantine art has never depicted Joachim with Anna at the moment of her prayer. As a rule, in narrative cycles devoted to the life of the Virgin, they are depicted separately or when they meet.

In Armenian art, however, the depiction of Mary’s parents is attributed to the Hymnarians. And since both Joachim and Anna are mentioned in the title of the canon, they are always together in the same composition. The angel in the upper corner, making a gesture of blessing, shows the divine favor shown to the couple, and the building framing Joachim recalls the couple’s meeting at the city gate.

This iconographic formula has become a classic illustration of the Hymn in Armenia and is found in manuscripts from the 15^th to the 17^th century.

Edda Vardanian.

H 105mm / W 80mm (Ms.056)

PENTECOST

After Joachim and Anne, the previous illustration, this is the second full-page illumination in this manuscript.

Placed opposite the Canon of Pentecost, it represents the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles which took place in Jerusalem, 50 days after the resurrection of Christ. The mention by the evangelists of a Comforter that Jesus had promised to send them in the name of the Father, the Spirit of truth who would be with them forever, made it possible to link the depiction of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles in Acts (2,1–13) to the Gospel Cycle.

This theme appears in Armenian art as early as the tenth century, among the paintings of the Church of the Holy Cross in Aghtamar (915–921), but it is not found until the second half of the eleventh century in Armenian illumination. In our example the twelve apostles are grouped in two vertical columns. The composition follows the common formula of late illumination (15^th–17^th centuries), where the position of the apostles differs from the single curved line, used by the Silican and Byzantine painters. Contrary to the Western and Byzantine tradition, the Virgin is not included in the scene.

The dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit, descends illuminating the apostles with its rays. Here we find a rare iconography, different from the representations of Pentecost in the Evangelicals: the dove of the Holy Spirit descends towards the altar where the chalice is placed. This liturgical cup is used in the Eucharistic celebration for the consecration of the wine that becomes the blood of Christ (the chalice recalls the wine cup of the Last Supper). In the image the chalice is surmounted by the host marked with a cross, which is the bread that the officiant consecrates during the celebration of the Eucharist for communion. The composition of our illumination, isolated from the canonical text and formed under the influence of the rite of the office, symbolizes the Communion.

Thus, in this manuscript for liturgical use, the illumination presents Pentecost as the symbol of a sacrament of the Eucharist. The Holy Spirit descends upon the apostles but also celebrates the birth of the Church. We see in this scene that the author emphasizes the liturgical and mystical significance of Pentecost and refers to the sacrament of the Eucharist which also recalls the institution of the Church.

“Pious men, from all nations,” who came to Jerusalem that day, are represented in the arched opening that suggests the door. The text indicates precisely that “Parthians, Medes and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, of the shores of the Black Sea, of the province of Asia, of Phrygia, of Pamphylia, of Egypt and of Libya near Cyrene, Romans residing here, Jews by birth and converts, Cretans and Arabs” each understood in their own language the words of the apostles. The group of “peoples” waiting outside is, in ancient compositions, depicted under the arch, the door, from the eleventh century. In Armenian art these groups are combined and reduced to two figures.

The cynocephalus in the cartouche at the bottom center appears in Armenian art from the thirteenth century among the Cilician manuscripts. From then on, this figure was to be used in all Armenian compositions on Pentecost.

Edda Vardanyan

H 105mm / W 80mm (Ms.056)

THE FORTY MARTYRS OF SEBASTE

The illumination in the side margin of folio 80v accompanies the canon of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. Their story dates back to the fourth century and illustrates the faith and courage of the early Christians in the midst of persecution.

In 320, out of hatred for the Emperor Constantine, his brother-in-law Licinus, Emperor of the Romans from 307 to 324, reigning over Asia, decreed that all Christians must abjure their faith and Christ on pain of death.

They were forty soldiers of a Roman legion stationed in Sebaste, in Little Armenia (currently Sivas in Cappadocia, province of Turkey). They came from different nations, all of them were Christians and attached to their faith. Agricola, then Governor of Armenia, showed them the Imperial Letters, ordering them to sacrifice to idols. But they refused to betray the faith of their baptism and confirmed themselves as Christians.

After a few days in prison, they were exposed naked at night in the middle of winter on the frozen lake of Sebaste. The ice was so thick that chariots could drive through it. If they denied, they were given a hot bath.

But they remained united in their faith.
The only one who gave in died when he entered the hot bath set up by the lake, because of the temperature difference. Then, suddenly, heavenly spirits descended from Heaven and placed radiant crowns on the heads of the martyred soldiers. Fascinated by this miracle, one of the guards, converted by their piety, joined them to reform the sacred number of forty.

In the morning all had ceased to live.
Agricola had them removed, ordered their limbs broken, burned their bodies and threw their bones into a river. Their remains then became holy relics that were shared among the faithful according to the widespread practice of the fourth century. It seems that a good part of these relics remained in Sebaste.

The feast of the Forty Martyrs is celebrated on March 9, in the middle of the forty days of Lent. Their story is told in the homilies of church fathers such as Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea and Ephrem the Syrian.

The martyrology has passed on the names of these forty martyrs, hymns have been dedicated to them and their story is depicted on numerous icons, frescoes and illuminations. In the illustration opposite, the forty heads of the soldiers are piled up on a thin blue line symbolizing the frozen lake of Sebaste. Placed on a red base, it forms a chalice which alludes to the sacrifice of the martyrs. The chalice surmounts tongues of fire that remind us of the pyre where they were thrown.

The whole composition shows the fulfillment of the word of the Psalm: “We have passed through fire and water. But you have brought us out of it to give us abundance.” (Ps 66:12) which is quoted in the Hymn of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.

At the top of the illumination we see the head of Christ with its cruciform nimbus coming out of the sky segment. Rays of light descend, guided by his gaze towards the martyrs. He sends the crowns that will cover their heads, they are made of gold, shining with light.

The whole evokes the end of the Hymn of the Holy Forty: “Today the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem are open. Sebaste has become the second Jordan where the Son of God descended and the divine crowns shine over the Holy Forty.”

Edda Vardanyan

H 105mm / W 80mm (Ms.056)

SAINT HRIPSIME

The saint holds in one hand the common attribute of martyrs, a cross, and with the other seems to point to the text. The workmanship combines Cilician reminiscences with the style that has prevailed since the 15^th century in Vaspurakan.

The story of Saint Rhipsime, the protagonist of the Christianization of Armenia, is based on two essential sources of different dates, both of which combine a novelistic framework with a historical background: the fifth-century account of Agathange and a ninth- or tenth-century hagiographic text, later interpolated into the History of the Armenians by Moses of Khorene. After having escaped the advances of Diocletian and fled his persecutions with a group of virgins, Rhipsimé rejects the love of Tiridate and preaches Christianity under the leadership of the nun Gayané. They are martyred with their companions in Valarsapat where Saint Gregory, after having found their remains, founds the two martyria dedicated to them. Despite their founding role in the national Church, their cult was not introduced into the official Armenian liturgy until the 12^th century, when their feast day was fixed on the 26^th of the month of hori (October 5), a date later taken up by the Armenian Synaxary. However, the two saints already had their place in the Synaxary of Constantinople and, from the end of the fifth century, in the Menologus of Symeon Metaphrastus, both of which celebrate their memory on September 30 with that of St. Gregory, as does the Latin Church. Nevertheless, as early as the seventh century, according to Vrt‘anes K‘ert‘oł, images of Rhipsimé and Gayané were found among those of the martyrs in the churches of Armenia. However, the first images of Rhipsimé that have been preserved do not go back further than the fourteenth century: they appear in liturgical collections, according to an uncharacteristic iconography, in conformity with those of the virgin martyrs, and which is not without analogy with Byzantine iconography. The saint is equipped with the cross and sometimes crowned. (for example, Dublin, Chester, Beatty Library, ms 592, fol. 239: Der Nersessian, 1858, p. 136).

Ioanna Rapti
cf Armenia Sacra, p. 32. Editions Somogy/Musée du Louvre 2007.

The art of the handwritten book

In Armenia, the art of books is linked to the invention of writing. Until the 5^th century AD, the inhabitants of the Armenian plateau had successively used the cuneiform script (Urartu), and later, with the various conquests, Aramaic (the Persian period), Greek (the Hellenistic and Parthian period) and Latin characters (under Roman domination).

Driven by the need to have a specific writing adapted to the language, around the year 405, an Armenian monk, Mesrop Mashtots, invented an alphabet composed of thirty-six letters or graphemes corresponding to the thirty-six phonemes of the oral language used in the 5^th century.

The most widely distributed and recognized book in this Christian nation was the first to be transcribed: The Bible.

This allowed the many copyists in monasteries to learn the alphabet, and they acted as network for disseminating Christianity, and thereby strengthening Armenian identity. This transmission of a culture and a religion made it possible for the identity of a civilisation remain intact despite the vicissitudes of history.

The texts were at first, for the most part, religious, biblical (The Bible—Gospels) or liturgical (Lectionaries—Hymnaries—Psalms—Homiliaries, etc.).

From the end of the 9^th century, there was an increase in the amount of manuscript works produced, propagating the faith of a people through this fundamental medium which is writing: it is the union of the written word and religion that allowed this people to survive, despite the lack of an organised state.

To embellish the written word, painters assisted the scribes, and it is in books that we find the best expression of Armenian pictorial art.

The Armenian book was printed in 1511, but manuscripts had such a predominant role that, unlike other countries, book printing in Armenia did not fully develop until the 18^th century and it was not until the 19^th century that it reached the stage where it could actually replace the work performed by hand.

Joachim and Anne

The canonical Gospels of the New Testament do not directly mention the parents of the Virgin Mary. The names of Mary’s parents have been passed down through Christian tradition: Joachim (“God grants”) and Anne (“Grace—the gracious one”), as well as the location of their house, in Jerusalem, near the temple. The story of Joachim and Anne appears in the apocryphal Gospel of James, in partly scholarly and partly ordinary text (see the “Protevanelium of James,” 1–4; text in Christian Apocryphal Writings, directed of F. BOVON and P. GEOLTRAIN, La Pléiade, Paris 1997, p. 82–85). This text was probably written around the year 150 AD in Alexandria.

Anne and Joachim were from the tribe of Judah and of the royal line of David. They were rich and owned large herds. They lived a holy life: Joachim is described as a pious man who regularly gave to the poor and to the temple. Despite their fervent prayers, however, they sadly had no children. For the Jews, this was the worst of all curses, and led to Joachim offering to the temple being rejected: as his wife was sterile, the High Priest rejected Joachim and his sacrifice, his wife’s infertility being interpreted as a sign of God’s displeasure. This greatly distressed Joachim who then withdrew to the desert where he fasted and did penance for forty days and forty nights, saying to himself: “I shall not go down either for food or for drink until the Lord my God visits me; prayer shall be my food and drink.”

According to the Apocrypha, Anne also was greatly distressed, and called upon the Master, saying: “God of my fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, just as you blessed our mother Sarah and gave her a son, Isaac.”

Angels appear to Joachim and Anne to promise them that they would have a child. Anne saw an angel of the Lord standing before her, saying: “Anne, Anne, the Lord God has heard your prayer. You shall conceive and bear children, and your descendants shall be spoken of throughout the world.” And Anne said: “As the Lord God lives, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as an offering to the Lord my God, and it will minister to Him for all the days of its life.”

At the same time, an angel of the Lord had come down to Joachim, saying: “Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Go down hence. For behold, your wife Anne has conceived.” Joachim returned to Jerusalem, and near the Golden Gate, he found Anne whom he “embraced,” their prayers were heard: Mary, the mother of God, was conceived and her conception is immaculate.

The narratives about Joachim and Anne were included in the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine. They are much represented in Christian art, often by a graceful image of marital love, immortalizing their kiss when they learned that Mary had been conceived.