Students Explore Morgan Library Manuscripts

Earlier this month, as part of her newly designed course on Christian Martyrdom in Image and Text at St. Nersess and St. Vladimir’s Seminaries, Dr. Ani Shahinian, Professor of Grace and Paul Shahinian Lectureship on Armenian Art and Culture, traveled with some of her students to the Morgan Library in New York City. There they investigated manuscripts from five different traditions including Armenian, Byzantine, Copic, Ethopic, and Syriac. A special manuscript included for their study was the Gospel Manuscript MS M.749, copied by the scribe Vardan and illuminated by the well renowned Van manuscript illuminator Minas, in the Lake Van Region, in the year 1461.

Dr. Shahinian elaborated the distinct features and characteristics of the Van region manuscript illuminations, highlighting Minas’ use of vibrant and intricate colors and patterns, elaborate floral motifs, and detailed depictions of biblical scenes and saints. Present were Joshua O’Driscoll, associate curator of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts at the Morgan Library & Museum, Andrea Myers Achi, PhD, current Mary and Michael Jaharis Associate Curator of Byzantine, and Dr. Helen C. Evans, PhD, Mary and Michael Jaharis, Curator of Byzantine Art Emerita, with honorable clergy from the Coptic and Ethiopian communities.