A presentation on the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library digital preservation
project of Armenian manuscripts will be made, accompanied by digital projected
illustrations, by the executive director of the library, Father Columba Stewart,
OSB, in New York City on Tuesday evening, June 15. The event, at the Guild
Hall of the Armenian Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), is
sponsored by the Diocesan Krikor and Clara Zohrab Resource
Center.
The
Hill Monastic Manuscript Library (HMML) is the world’s largest collection of
microfilm and digital images of handwritten books. Begun in 1965 by the
Benedictine monks of Saint John’s Abbey as a response to the destruction of
European monastic libraries in two World Wars, HMML has now photographed
libraries throughout Europe, from its beginnings in Austria through Central
Europe to Spain, Portugal, Malta, England, and Ethiopia. Currently HMML is
photographing manuscripts in Sweden and at four sites in Lebanon. The most
recent estimate of the Library’s holdings counts 90,000 manuscripts and almost
30,000,000
pages.
In
2002, HMML took two new strategic paths: first, the introduction of digital
photography to facilitate more sophisticated study of manuscripts and access to
them via the internet; second, a major initiative focused on the manuscript
traditions of the Christian East. In the 1970s and 1980s, HMML photographers had
preserved some 8000 Christian manuscripts in Ethiopia, and among the holdings of
the European libraries HMML has photographed were significant collections of
eastern Christian manuscripts, especially from the library of the Armenian
Catholic Mechitarist Congregation in Vienna. In April 2003, during the war in
Iraq, HMML technicians established a studio at Balamand Monastery and University
near Tripoli in Northern Lebanon. In early 2004, HMML assumed direction of
projects already underway at the Jesuit Université de Saint-Joseph in Beirut and
the Maronite Université Saint-Esprit at Kaslik.
Among
HMML’s initiatives focused on the Christian East, a special emphasis has been
placed on collections of Armenian manuscripts. The Armenian literary and
artistic heritage is uniquely strong, and its manuscripts are universally
regarded as masterpieces of the book arts. The manuscripts have also accompanied
the Armenian people into exile, and many were lost during the period of the
Genocide or during the Soviet era. Today the major collections of Armenian
manuscripts outside of the Republic of Armenia are in countries such as Turkey,
Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Israel, where they are constantly at risk.
In April 2004, HMML began photographing the manuscripts of the Armenian
Apostolic Catholicosate of Cilicia in Antelias, Lebanon. Two of the manuscripts
from the Catholicosate have been included in the stunning exhibition at the
Metropolitan Museum in New York, “Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557).” HMML
has been in serious conversation with other Armenian libraries, and in late June
Fr. Columba Stewart, OSB, Executive Director of HMML, will meet with the
Armenian Patriarch in Istanbul about the collection at the Patriarchate.
The June
15 program will begin at 7:00 p.m., and will conclude with a reception.
The Diocese is located at 630 Second Avenue (corner 34th St.), NYC. The
event is open to the public and complimentary. For further information,
call (212) 686-0710x26 or email
[log in to unmask].
