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ARMENIAN MANUSCRIPTS DIGITIZED IN SYRIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
May 18, 2012 - 15:15 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at St. John's
University completed a manuscript preservation project in the Middle
East shortly before the violence worsened in Syria, sctimes.com
reports.
"This was our last current project in Syria, and we had done actually
a series of projects - about six of them in Syria - in different
locations," said the Rev. Columba Stewart, executive director of the
Collegeville-based library.
However, HMML-trained technicians in Aleppo, Syria, were able to
complete the digitization of 225 Armenian manuscripts belonging to
the Armenian Orthodox Diocese of Aleppo - one of the largest Armenian
collections in Syria.
"We began the work before the current turmoil in Syria, and this
particular project was finished just as the situation started to get
bad in Aleppo, which had been quiet until fairly recently," Stewart
said during a call from Bethlehem.
Aleppo's Armenian community is ancient, dating from the days when
Aleppo was a prominent trading center on the Silk Road. In the early
20th century, Armenian refugees fleeing genocide in Turkey found
sanctuary with their compatriots in Aleppo.
"We also work on Islamic projects, so our interests transcend
particular denominations or religious groups because all of this
handwritten manuscript heritage is really the heritage of all
humankind," Stewart said.
HMML has now completed a series of projects in Aleppo that have
included important collections belonging to the Syriac Orthodox,
Syriac Catholic and Greek-Catholic communities, for a total of 2,150
digitally preserved manuscripts.
"Many of these manuscripts represent communities persecuted, scattered
and even destroyed in the tribulations of the last few centuries,"
he said. "Their survival, and the care given them by the churches of
the Middle East, is a testament to the profound meaning manuscripts
have in the cultural memory of traditional communities."
Adam McCollum is the lead cataloger of Eastern Christian manuscripts
at HMML and will be responsible for getting the Armenian collection
cataloged once it is at the HMML.
"Once the library has entered into a partnership with people who have
collections of manuscripts, a studio is set up there with a digital
camera, and entire manuscript collections are photographed and put
onto hard drives and mailed back to us," McCollum said.
One digital copy of the Armenian collection will stay with Bishop
Shahan Sarkissian and the Armenian Orthodox Diocese of Aleppo. HMML
will keep an additional digital copy of the collection in a highly
secure location.
"The general populace in these places is still pretty safe - at least
at this point - but we have no idea what's going to happen in the
future," he said of HMML's continuing work in Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey,
as well as in Ethiopia, southwest India and Malta.
PanARMENIAN.Net
May 18, 2012 - 15:15 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at St. John's
University completed a manuscript preservation project in the Middle
East shortly before the violence worsened in Syria, sctimes.com
reports.
"This was our last current project in Syria, and we had done actually
a series of projects - about six of them in Syria - in different
locations," said the Rev. Columba Stewart, executive director of the
Collegeville-based library.
However, HMML-trained technicians in Aleppo, Syria, were able to
complete the digitization of 225 Armenian manuscripts belonging to
the Armenian Orthodox Diocese of Aleppo - one of the largest Armenian
collections in Syria.
"We began the work before the current turmoil in Syria, and this
particular project was finished just as the situation started to get
bad in Aleppo, which had been quiet until fairly recently," Stewart
said during a call from Bethlehem.
Aleppo's Armenian community is ancient, dating from the days when
Aleppo was a prominent trading center on the Silk Road. In the early
20th century, Armenian refugees fleeing genocide in Turkey found
sanctuary with their compatriots in Aleppo.
"We also work on Islamic projects, so our interests transcend
particular denominations or religious groups because all of this
handwritten manuscript heritage is really the heritage of all
humankind," Stewart said.
HMML has now completed a series of projects in Aleppo that have
included important collections belonging to the Syriac Orthodox,
Syriac Catholic and Greek-Catholic communities, for a total of 2,150
digitally preserved manuscripts.
"Many of these manuscripts represent communities persecuted, scattered
and even destroyed in the tribulations of the last few centuries,"
he said. "Their survival, and the care given them by the churches of
the Middle East, is a testament to the profound meaning manuscripts
have in the cultural memory of traditional communities."
Adam McCollum is the lead cataloger of Eastern Christian manuscripts
at HMML and will be responsible for getting the Armenian collection
cataloged once it is at the HMML.
"Once the library has entered into a partnership with people who have
collections of manuscripts, a studio is set up there with a digital
camera, and entire manuscript collections are photographed and put
onto hard drives and mailed back to us," McCollum said.
One digital copy of the Armenian collection will stay with Bishop
Shahan Sarkissian and the Armenian Orthodox Diocese of Aleppo. HMML
will keep an additional digital copy of the collection in a highly
secure location.
"The general populace in these places is still pretty safe - at least
at this point - but we have no idea what's going to happen in the
future," he said of HMML's continuing work in Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey,
as well as in Ethiopia, southwest India and Malta.