Armenian Manuscripts in the Diaspora. Travel, Contact, Exchange

Due to emigration from the historic Armenian homelands starting in the 11th century, a number of distant places saw the founding of new copying centres and manuscript repositories or the reinvigoration of existing ones. Such settlements, which can be divided between an “inner” circle (Cilicia, Cappadocia, Upper Mesopotamia) and an “outer” one (Pontus, Georgia, Persia, Northern Syria, Cyprus, Jerusalem, Italy, Constantinople, Western Anatolia, Crimea, Dniester Basin, etc.), maintained a variety of contacts with each other, as well as with the different regions of Armenia proper. Evidence for these lively exchanges is found, among other things, in the circulation of manuscripts and the travels of their producers. An investigation into this mobility helps map out and pinpoint the personal networks and paths of communication between the diaspora communities and those in historical Armenian lands. In those places, Armenians interacted with other cultures and exchanges happened that left traces of various kinds in the manuscripts