Matenadaran
Repository of ancient illuminated manuscripts, its facade lined with basalt statues of the scholars who wrote them.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Matenadaran in Yerevan centers on Toros Roslin, a thirteenth-century manuscript painter working in the monastery workshop at Hromkla who broke with tradition by giving his sacred figures restless, individual faces instead of the same serene mask every other illuminator used. Almost nothing is known about his life beyond the gospel books he signed for kings and bishops, and the colophons where he and his patrons describe those pages surviving wars, exile and captivity. You'll hear where his surviving manuscripts ended up scattered across the world. Take a moment at the building's basalt-lined entrance before heading inside to the collection itself.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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