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Description

The aim of the project – financed by the National Humanities Development Programme, and run by the Foundation for the Culture and Heritage of Polish Armenians in Warsaw in cooperation with the Research Centre for Armenian Culture in Poland – is to edit the sources from the fourteenth century to the eighteenth century that are relevant to the history of the Polish Armenians. The project is being carried out by a team led by Krzysztof Stopka, which is made up of Edward Tryjarski, Andrzej A. Zięba, Tatavik E. Sargsyan, Franciszek Wasyl, Andrzej Gliński, Marcin Łukasz Majewski, Monika Agopsowicz, Hripsime Mamikonyan, Gevorg Kazaryan, and Armen Artwich. The team also draws support from a group of document scanners, translators and indexers. There are seven volumes in the Monuments of the history of the Polish Armenians source series:

1) Zapisy sądu duchownego Ormian miasta Lwowa za lata 1564–1608 w języku ormiańsko-kipczackim w opracowaniu Edwarda Tryjarskiego (Records of the Armenian clerical court of the city of Lwów in 1564-1608 in Armeno-Kipchak prepared by Edward Tryjarski) – an edition of the manuscripts in the collection of the Mekhitarist Monastery Library in Vienna, which document court cases heard in the Armenian community of Lwów (now: Lviv). It contains much valuable material on the community’s system of law and administration, as well as on its everyday life, its relations with its Polish, Jewish and Ruthenian neighbours, and on the history of the Armenian Church in Poland. This edition includes a transcription of the original written in the Armenian alphabet, a translation from Kipchak into Polish, a commentary, and indexes of words, people and places.

2) Jasachy gminy Ormian lwowskich z lat 1598-1638 w języku ormiańsko-kipczackim w opracowaniu Krzysztofa Stopki (Yasaks of the Lwów Armenian community in 1598-1638 in Armeno-Kipchak prepared by Krzysztof Stopka) – an edition of the manuscript from the collection of the Mekhitarist Monastery Library in Vienna that documents the monetary obligations (known as yasaks in Armeno-Kipchak) disbursed by heads of Armenian families living in Lwów to the Armenian commune, the city and the state. It offers a sound platform for estimating the Armenian population and its wealth. This edition includes a transcription from the Armenian alphabet of the original, a translation from Kipchak into Polish, a commentary, and an index of people and places.

3) Metryka katedry ormiańskiej we Lwowie za lata 1635–1732 w opracowaniu Marcina Łukasza Majewskiego i Krzysztofa Stopki (Register of the Armenian cathedral in Lwów for 1635-1732 edited by Marcin Łukasz Majewski and Krzysztof Stopka] – an edition of the manuscript produced in Armeno-Kipchak, Latin, and Old Polish, which is kept by the Mekhitarist Monastery Library in Vienna. The register, which is the earliest of the extant registers of the Polish Armenians, records the baptisms, weddings and deaths of those who lived in the oldest and most important of the Armenian communities in Kingdom of Poland. It is also a precious source of genealogical and demographic data. This edition includes a transcription of the Armenian-Kipchak section, a translation of the entire source text into contemporary Polish, a commentary, and an index of people and places.

4) Zapiski podróżne (Travel notes) by Simeon Lehatsi – an edition of a work written in seventeenth-century Armenian, in Lwów in approximately 1636. Though unpublished in Lehatsi’s lifetime, it is an important source for the history and mentality of the Armenians of Old Poland. It has been quoted often and parts of it have been translated into various languages (Russian, English, Eastern Armenian). Yet other than the excerpts translated by Zbigniew Kościów from the Russian, it has still to be published in Polish. This is surprising because it has been kept in Polish collections – first in Lwów and now in the National Library in Warsaw – since it was written. It is a masterpiece of Armenian literature and, since it was composed in Poland by a Polish native, it is also an outstanding work of travel literature of the old Polish era. It describes the period 1608-1619, which Lehatsi spent on a journey-cum-pilgrimage to Armenian and Latin Christian centres in the Middle East, Western Europe, and South-Eastern Europe. It also tells of the Armenian religious and secular institutions of Lwów, its priests, and the customs and language of Polish Armenians there. Readers are also provided with an autobiography of Lehatsi from around 1636. The translation and critical edition of the source has been entrusted to Hripsime Mamikonyan. It will be published with an index of people and places.

5) Stefan Roszka, Chronologia, czyli roczniki kościelne [Chronology, or church yearbooks) – an edition of a work written in Stanisławów before 1739 in eighteenth-century Armenian. The manuscript is in the collection of the Mekhitarist Monastery Library in Vienna. Selected excerpts concerning the Polish Armenians were published in 1896 by Fr. Ghevond Alishan and, in 1964; further sections were edited by Fr. Hamazasb Voskian. The chronicle compiled by the Armenian-Catholic priest Roszka of Stanisławów begins in the first year of our era and ends in 1739. The entries are preceded by information about the personalities who held power in the various churches and states, and historical events are presented in chronological order. However the author died before a final edit could be made and the text organised. It is valuable due to the sources used (some of which are not available today) and to the representation of the state of historical consciousness of the most outstanding Armenian intellectual in Poland at that time. The translation has been entrusted to Gevorg Kazaryan and the volume will be furnished with an index of people and places.

6) Minas Bżyszkian, Podróż do Polski i innych krajów, w których żyją wygnańcy z miasta Ani, Wenecja 1830 (Journey to Poland and other countries where dwell exiles from the city of Ani, Venice 1830) – an account of the journey of a Venetian Mekhitarist Minas Bzhshkian through the Armenian centres of Old Poland (then actually: Austria and Russia), Transylvania, Bukovina and Moldova, which took place in the 1820s. The author includes excerpts from the sources he read during the trip, as well as inscriptions and descriptions of the cities he visited that concern the history and contemporary life of their Armenian communities. Many of the materials he collected were destroyed or lost during the two world wars. The translation from the Armenian language and critical edition has been entrusted to Tatevik E. Sargsyan. The volume will be provided with an index of people and places.

7) The final volume, Nowy Aliszan (The New Alishan) will be a collection of translations into Polish of shorter source texts. The title refers to an edition made – without critical apparatus – by Fr. Ghevond Alishan: Կամենից. Տարեգիրք հայոց Լեհաստանի և Ռումենիոյ հաւաստչեայ յաւելուածովք, Վենետիկ, Սբ. Ղազար 1896 (Kamenetz. Yearbooks of the Polish and Romanian Armenians with the most ancient sources appended). In addition to the documents prepared by Fr. Alishan, which include the Venetian Chronicle, the Kamieniec Chronicle, colophons from manuscripts, and bulls nominating Armenian bishops in Lwów issued by catholicoi in Sis and Ejmiatsin, the volume will include many other sources in Armeno-Kipchak, Latin, and Polish and will be furnished with an index of people and places.

The individual volumes will be accompanied by CDs with digital recordings of the original sources (See: M. Agopsowicz, Pomniki dziejowe Ormian polskich – nowa seria źródłowa dotycząca społeczności ormiańskiej w Polsce, „Lehahayer”, 5, 2018, pp. 291-297).

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