Aims and objectives
This 12-month project seeks to make the cultural patrimony of the Transylvanian Armenian Community of Gherla/Armenopolis accessible to international scholarship for the first time by digitising the 57 Armenian manuscripts and 100 files of archival documents in the collection as well as creating an inventory and in-depth study of the 200 early printed books.
The collection is an untapped resource for reconstructing aspects of the Armenian community’s political, religious and intellectual involvement in Transylvania’s early modern transformation through incorporation into the more encompassing Austrian imperium and Roman Catholic communion during the Counter-Reformation. Gherla/Armenopolis, an exclusively Armenian foundation, constituted their regional centre. The archival documents contextualise macro-level overviews of regional history with micro-level data complementing archives in Rome and Vienna regarding integration into a Roman Catholic jurisdiction, reflected in the replacement of Armenian by Latin. Manuscripts offer a parallel lens on the liturgical trajectory by physically testifying to changes conforming to Tridentine usage, while detailed colophons referencing important figures and institutions help trace community evolution. Meanwhile, earlier illuminated codices are iconographically valuable representatives of their typology. Rare printed materials (history, philosophy, poetry) highlight the interplay between book and manuscript culture in intellectual life, transitioning to a more modern, systematic European educational network.
The project rests on a collaboration between supervisors from the GWZO Center in Leipzig and UCLA and graduate students from the Peter Pazmany Catholic University of Budapest as the primary actors in Gherla under the guidance of archivists from the Ordinariate for Armenian Catholics of Romania.
