Overview
Rare works include specimens of palaeography from the 10th century, comprising biblical works, service-books of all kinds: Patristic theology, philosophy, poems and tales, history and geography, philology, astronomy, medicine, astrology and magic. Many of the manuscripts are also finely illustrated or illuminated. The India Office Records also contains some documents in Armenian, such as wills from Bengal.
The modern printed book collection is overwhelmingly of 19th- and 20th-century works. It covers classical, modern Western and Eastern Armenian, and also includes works in Russian and Western languages. Early publications from Tzarist Russia, Tbilisi, Constantinople, Venice, and Vienna are well represented. More recently the systematic collection of titles published in the Soviet Republic of Armenia from 1975-1990 and obtained through exchange from the Academy of Sciences, Erevan State University, etc. make the holdings comprehensive and wide ranging.
All the major academic journals published in Tzarist and Soviet Armenia and by the major communities in the Armenian diaspora (Constantinople, Venice, Vienna, Jerusalem, etc.) are present.
The collection also includes 15 early printed maps, one from the 17th century, 12 from the 18th and two from the 19th century.
Catalogue
There is no separate online catalogue of Armenian manuscripts or printed books. The earlier manuscript holdings are described in a printed catalogue
There is a printed catalogue of the early Armenian printed books published up to 1850; for later imprints see the card catalogue available in the Asian & African Studies Reading Room; Western printed editions and studies of Armenian language, literature and culture are added to the Library's online catalogue. Catalogue transliteration schemes: Hubschmann-Millet or REA scheme.
Collection printed catalogues
A catalogue of Armenian manuscripts in the British Museum.
Conybeare, F.C.
London: The British Museum, 1913.
Describes 149 items.
Catalogue of early Armenian books 1512-1850.
Nersessian, Vrej.
London: The British Library, 1980.
Also includes entries for the early Armenian books held in the Bodleian Library, and a brief title-list of early Armenian books in the Library of Wadham College, Oxford.
India Office Library Aramaic, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, Turkish printed books.
London: The India Office Library & Records, 1979.
Not published. Bound-up copy of xeroxes of catalogue cards and available in the Asian & African Studies Reading Room. Lists eleven Armenian printed books.
Related topics: Christian Orient Collections
Contact
Vrej Nersessian, Head of Christian Middle East Section
Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London
NW1 2DB
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7685
E-mail: vrej.nersessian@bl.uk
