Paleography
As a distinct science, the Armenian Paleography engages in the research and study of the Armenian written heritage (in the Armenian letters) that originates from the 5th century, Mashtots alphabet. The Armenian Paleography includes the examination of letter types and their evolution since their date of creation, including their several applications, Cryptographic, transliteration from the foreign languages, several Calendar calculations, Arithmetic and other purpose. The Armenian Paleography is directly, connected to the manuscripts, lithography, and the printed literature, in regards to the study of the used letter types.
Towards the end of the 19th, century, an increased interest in the Armenian Paleography has been recorded. Father H. Tashyan from the Mekhitarist Armenian Brotherhood in Vienna, had a huge role in this respect, he had printed his research in a book called «Ակնարկ մը հայ հնագրութեան վրայ» [Aknark mə hay hnagrut̒ean vray] (“A View on the Armenian Paleography”), in 1898. This book was summary of the questions and opinions on Armenian Paleography at his time. It should be noted, that the author’s motivation for writing this book was a unique papyrus fragment in the Armenian letters with the Greek text (we will present it in our future articles).
Many are those, who have contributions to the Armenian Paleography domain, some of whom are Gh. Indjidjyan, Gh. Alishan, N. Adonts, H. Acharyan, K. Hovsepyan, N. Akinyan, K. Ghafadaryan, A. Abrahamyan, A. Matevosyan, and others.
Authored by M. Stone, D. Kouymjian, and H. Lehman, a research called “Album of Armenian Paleography” («Հայ հնագրության ալբոմ» [Hay hnagrut̒yan albom]) was published in 2002, this, too, was a huge contribution in this field. However, it was translated into the Armenian in 2006.
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