CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Grigoryan, Metaksya |
|---|---|
| Title | Beginnings of Early Armenian Printing in Venice and Rome in the Sixteenth Century: Reconsideration of Research Frameworks and Contexts |
| Summary | The appearance of the first printed books in a native language, although a significant advancement, does not necessarily mean formation of national print culture, as the shift from the manuscript to the printed book is a matter of long transformations. In the case of Armenian printing, as it emerged and was for a long time maintained outside the homeland – in Venice, and Rome, later also Lvov, Amsterdam and other non-Armenian cities – the differentiation of the two phenomena, i.e. first Armenian printed book and Armenian print culture, proves indeed crucial. However, as I show in my thesis, since the late nineteenth century the Armenian historiography has continuously interpreted the primary sources of the beginnings of Armenian printing within the scopes of nationalist claims, which thus has entailed a number of discrepancies in proper understanding and evaluation of the significance of early Armenian printing. The major problem in this is that the establishment of the publication of the first printed books in Armenian language has been regarded as an impulse for the national reawakening, that was otherwise oppressed under the Ottoman and Safavid rule. My thesis argues, based on the close examination of the available sources, that the production of the first printing enterprises, all of which ceased in existence soon after the first publications, did not intend to be, could not intend to be, and finally was not a factor of the national reawakening, insofar as it had narrow personal aspirations behind. Furthermore, it points out a few contexts other than the nationalist one, thus showing that application of new contexts and new approaches will unfold new insights into the beginnings of the Armenian printing. |
| Supervisor | Al-Bagdadi, Nadia |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/grigoryan_metaksya.pdf |
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