WHAT DO THE MANUSCRIPTS HIDE? ABOUT THE DESCRIPTION OF A MANUSCRIPT PUBLISHED IN THE "SION" MAGAZINE

Abstract

Maksoudian published in 1968 in the magazine “Sion” a description of the manuscript of 1311, supplementing the manuscript heritage of the medieval Artske, copied by the scribe Hovhannes in the “Desert of Artske” under the title Recently discovered Armenian manuscript in America. The manuscript contains the books of Solomon the Wise: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, as well as the work by Grigor Nyusatsi Interpretation of the Song of Songs. The article considers this description as an important source, equivalent to a manuscript, for the study of the written environment of Artske.

In 1317 the Hovhannes, in the same Artske desert, made an exact copy of the manuscript (colophons and contents coincide), which is the manuscript number 76 of the Mashtots Matenadaran. The comparative textological-codicological analysis of these two manuscripts from the Artske Desert reveals new details both about the copyist Hovhannes and about the writing environment of Artske at the beginning of the 14^th century; the worldly name of the copyist and the names of his relatives become known, of whom there is no mention in the colophon of the manuscript number 76.

The article highlights the fact that Solomon's Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs and Wisdom were copied in a separate manuscript as a unique phenomenon of copying the biblical text, which justifies the presence in this copied text of noteworthy discrepancies that are absent in the readings of the Bible, considered authoritative, published by Hovhannes Zohrabian in 1805 year, and may contribute to a future work on the composition of the critical text of the Bible.