A catalogue of Armenian Manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries

MS. Arm. e. 37

Oriental Manuscripts

Contents

Dionysius [Pseudo-] Areopagite, 17th. cent.

1. f. 4
Incipit: Նախ քան զձեռնարկել յիրողութիւնս արժան վարկանիմ պատճառ արտադրել թէ վասն էր համարձակեցայ …
Language(s): Armenian

Includes: Preface of the translator; On the celestial hierarchy; On the ecclesiastical hierarchy; On the divine names; On the mystic theology; The ten letters (with the exception of the Letter to Totus on the Dormition of the Holy Virgin); Narrative of the conversion of St. Dionysius; The colophon of the translator. The translator, Stephanos of Lemberg, in his preface and colophon declares that during his stay in Edschmiadzin, as teacher of philosophy, he made, at the request of his pupils, this new translation, - as the old one was obscure, - from the Latin. He merely changed the words and phrases of the old text, and added to the scholia of Maximus, which already had a place in the old version, others taken from fresh sources; he did this A.E. 1111 (A.D. 1662), under the catholicate of Jacob IV. He also mentions his other translations into Armenianl namely, of Josephus (the Jewish war), of the Book of Causes (Գիրք պատճառոց), of the Lives of the Faters, from the Polish, a work called the 'Mirror of Lives' (Հայելի վարուց), which was printed later on in 1702, apparently in Marseilles.

2. f. 252
Incipit: Յազնուականութիւն և յընչաւէտութիւն և ի մեծութիւն յառաջընտրութեան մեծին Դիոնէսիոսի …
Language(s): Armenian

Includes: Prologue; On the celestial hierarchy; On the ecclesiastical hierarchy; On the divine names; On the mystic theology; The ten letters (the last but one, addressed to Titus, is entitled: On the Dormition of Holy Deipara and ever Virgin Mary); From the theological treatises of St. Hierotheus; The colophon of the translator. Here we read that this Book of Dionysius the Areopagite was translated in Constantinople from 'accurate exemplars, by David the Consul (ὕπατοϲ) and Coenarius (Կենառ) of the royal table, and by Stephanos the priest and grammarian, pupil of Moses, bishop of Siunik, in the year 6220 of the creation, and in the 14th Indiction of the Greek era, in the second year of the reign of Philippus' (read Philippicus). If we assume the last clause to be the more accurate of the three, the date would correspond to A.D. 713.

References

Physical Description

Form: codex
Dimensions (leaf): 7.5" × 6" × 3" in.

Layout

Hand(s)

Written in Bolorgir script

History

Origin: 17th cent.

Record Sources

Manuscript description based on: Baronian, Sukias, Rev.; Conybeare, F. C. (Frederick Cornwallis); Catalogue of the Armenian manuscripts in the Bodleian Library; Oxford, at the Clarendon Press 1918

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card (for admissions procedures contact Bodleian Admissions).

Funding of Cataloguing

JISC-??-