Hamaynapatker Viennakan Mkhitʻarean Hayreru krtʻakan gortsunēutʻean


Today’s featured books are two volumes from the set “Hamaynapatker Viennakan Mkhitʻarean Hayreru krtʻakan gortsunēutʻean”.

Our library has volumes 2 and 3 of the three volume set that provides an Overview of the educational activities of the Mekhitarists of Vienna by Epʻrem LinkPōghosean. This is an interesting find from a WSU surplus sale.


Tom Vartabedian provides more information on the subject of this series:

    The Mekhitarist monastery is located in the heart of Vienna, Austria, on a street named after it.

    It is here where a cadre of Armenian Catholic Fathers has gathered since the late 18th century to preserve Armenian culture and literature, preach to the faithful, heighten the spiritual and intellectual development of the Armenian people, and educate its youth.

    It is here that a prominent religious order has contributed greatly toward bringing Armenians to the forefront of European thought through publications in Latin, French, German, Italian, and English.

Tom was able to “lend a hand in the library, which contained over 170,000 books.”

Mekhitarist Monastery Library

The Mekhitarist library in Vienna, with Father Nerses Akinian at study

The Armenian culture deserves to be remembered and preserved. These volumes provide a history of the Mekhitarist Vienna Mission that is the center of much of that preservation.

Hamaynapatker Viennakan

DLWA Call Number: LC443.T8 P645 2008
Worldcat.org: Link

  • Title: Hamaynapatker Viennakan Mkhitʻarean Hayreru krtʻakan gortsunēutʻean
  • Language: Armenian
  • Setting: Armenian Vienna.

–DLW

The Book in the Renaissance


Today’s featured book is “The Book in the Renaissance” by Andrew Pettegree. The first 150 years of the world of print was a major turning point in Medieval history leading to the Renaissance. Far from being an immediate success, the the printed book trade depended upon the development of a market of patrons who were willing to embrace this new form of the book. During the early days of printing with movable type established collectors and libraries preferred the time proven hand produced manuscripts. In the complicated, post-Gutenberg world the printed book plays a critical role in rescuing ancient learning from obscurity, and brought to a wider audience knowledge of the natural and physical world. As one reviewer, Bryce Christensen, highlights:

    St. Teresa of Avila remarked, “If I did not have a new book, I did not feel that I could be happy.” … new books found their way into the hands of Renaissance readers such as St. Teresa. That force, as readers soon realize, reshaped the world of learning, as affordable books swelled enrollment in universities and multiplied municipal schools. But the force of the printed word emerged far from the classroom, as printing presses become potent weapons in political and ecclesiastical conflicts.


DLWA Call Number: Z291.3 .P48 2010
Amazon.com: Link

  • Title: The Book in the Renaissance
  • ISBN: 030011009X (ISBN13: 978-0300110098)
  • Language: English
  • Setting: Europe
  • Literary awards: Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2011

–DLW

The Professor and the Madman


Today’s featured book is “The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary” by Simon Winchester. This volume explored one of the fascinating chapters in the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. It reads like a mystery on the par with Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes (Adult Content).

The Professor and the Madman

DLWA Call Number: PE1617.O94 W56 1998
Amazon.com: Link

  • Title: The Professor and the Madman
  • ISBN: 0060839783 (ISBN13: 9780060839789)
  • Language: English
  • Setting: United Kingdom
  • Literary awards: National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for General Non fiction (1998)

–DLW