{"id":5620,"date":"2013-07-27T14:45:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-27T18:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=5620"},"modified":"2013-08-09T19:28:14","modified_gmt":"2013-08-09T23:28:14","slug":"illuminated-manuscripts-modern-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=5620","title":{"rendered":"Illuminated Manuscripts & Modern Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday – July 27, 2013 <\/span><\/p>\n

Spoiler alert: if you don’t care for ancient books and manuscripts or modern art, skip to another page.<\/p>\n

I had a wonderful day today! \u00a0I took a city taxi to the edge of the city to the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, commonly called The Matenadaran. \u00a0The magnificent building houses the world’s largest collection of ancient Armenian manuscripts. \u00a0One of the guide books stated\u00a0that the stone building is dug into a hill and can withstand a nuclear attack. \u00a0I’m not sure about that information, but the museum appeared to be a very solid and impressive building.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Matenadaran<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lobby of the Matenadaran<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/a>The Main Manuscript Room<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Illuminated Manuscript<\/p>\n

The collection at the Matenadaran includes more than 17,000 manuscripts. \u00a0The oldest parchment book is the Gospel of Lazarus written in 887. \u00a0There are older \u00a0fragments of manuscripts dating from the 5th to 8th centuries. \u00a0It is an amazing collection.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Manuscript<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Another Manuscript Room<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Map of the World – 1110 A.D.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Plants Used to Make Ink<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Hacob Meghapart – “The Sinner”<\/p>\n

The first book printed in the Armenian language was The Friday Book in 1512. \u00a0It was printed in Venice, Italy by Hacob Meghapart some years after Gutenberg invented the printing press. \u00a0Hacob Maghapart was a monk who called himself \u00a0“the Sinner” because, at that time, it was believed that the words in books came from God and were transmitted through a religious scribe. \u00a0Therefore, printing was a sin because the words were placed on the pages by a machine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Friday Book – Venice 1512<\/p>\n

I spent more than three hours in the Matenadaran because the collection of ancient manuscripts was so vast and \u00a0impressive. \u00a0Afterwards, I walked down the broad tree-lined Mashtots Avenue. \u00a0I passed a small book store and noticed English language books in the window.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/a>Little Old Book Store<\/span><\/p>\n

I entered the store and was surprised to find impressive paintings on the ceiling. \u00a0After a little bargaining, I purchased an overpriced paperback book and some post cards.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ceiling in the Book Store<\/p>\n

On the corner, I found another branch of the Russian Tashir Pizza chain. \u00a0Since it was almost three o’clock, I stopped in for a late lunch. \u00a0The waitress was surly and unfriendly, but a young man at the next table, who spoke English, helped me and ordered in Russian. \u00a0When I thanked him in Armenian, he asked if he could join me. \u00a0He was an Armenian\/Russian university student from Omsk, Siberia who came to Yerevan “to practice English.” \u00a0He said he was staying in a local youth hostel where all the international students speak English. \u00a0When he heard me speak English, he was eager to practice with a real English-speaking person. \u00a0I had company for lunch, learned a little about Omsk, and admired his youthful enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tashir Fast Food<\/p>\n

After lunch, I walked along Isahakyan Street toward The Cascade. \u00a0Anahit and Karin brought us here on my first day in Yerevan, but the museum was closed. \u00a0I returned today to visit the Cafesjian Center for the Arts. \u00a0This is a magnificent multi-level gallery of modern art with a fabulous sculpture garden on the first level.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Foot of The Cascade<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Cafesjian Center for the Arts<\/p>\n

There are indoor and outdoor spaces for exhibiting the amazing world-class private collection of Gerard Cafesjian. \u00a0The museum climbs five levels up the side of a hill. \u00a0There is an indoor escalator, as well as indoor and outdoor stairs to view the art works. \u00a0The structure is simply called “The Cascade.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Decorative Fountain<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Modern Art in the Cascade<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Looking Out<\/p>\n

Photography was prohibited in the galleries so I have no photos of the objects on display indoors. \u00a0My favorites were: in the first floor gallery there was an exhibit of glassworks created by Dale Chihuly and in another upper level space there were the works of the Czech couple, Libensky and Brychtova.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Modern Art<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sculpture Garden Below<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Cascade<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Good Gelato<\/p>\n

The lovely tree-lined street in front of The Cascade is lined with cafes and restaurants. \u00a0I needed a short rest, so I stopped in one for a bottle of cold water and a dish of Italian gelato. \u00a0It was very tasty!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Street Sign<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Fireworks From My Hotel Window<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday – July 27, 2013 Spoiler alert: if you don’t care for ancient books and manuscripts or modern art, skip to another page. I had a wonderful day today! \u00a0I took a city taxi to the edge of the city to the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, commonly called The Matenadaran. \u00a0The magnificent building […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-armenian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5620"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5645,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5620\/revisions\/5645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}