The final repository from the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul (the Azgayin Matenadaran Collection, project code APIA) has now been fully digitized, cataloged, and made accessible through HMML’s Reading Room. Comprising 261 manuscripts, this collection originates from a library and museum that no longer exists and is preserved today in the Patriarchate’s library.

This collection is of exceptional historical significance not only because it safeguards the physical manuscripts now digitized, but also because it preserves the memory of an entire library that was destroyed and left without trace. Once located at the heart of Constantinople, near the Galata district across the street from St. Gregory Illuminator’s church, the Azgayin Matenadaran served as a vital center of Armenian scholarship, religious life, and cultural production. Its disappearance reflects the broader obliteration of Armenian communal, intellectual, and ecclesiastical infrastructure during the late Ottoman period. The collection stands as a testament to the resilience of cultural heritage in the face of catastrophic loss. Among the collection are manuscripts containing illuminated Gospels, Psalters, Lectionaries, Yaysmawurkʻ, Mashtotsʻ, Zhamagirkʻ, Sharaknotsʻ, Kʻanonagirkʻ, commentaries, homilies, biblical concordance, and philosophical works, among other genres.

One 18th-century manuscript (APIA 00029) is a copy of the Commentary on the Twelve Prophets (Meknutʻiwn Erkotasan Margarēitsʻn) by Nersēs vardapet Lambronatsʻi (1153-1198). The manuscript illumination depicts an Armenian vardapet (doctor of the church) instructing student-monks sitting at the feet of their teacher. View now