Armenian Book Printing in the Ottoman Empire The Armenians were one of the firsts to make use of Gutenberg’s invention. Since 1512 they have established printing houses and published books in different corners of the world, where there were Armenian colonies. The Ottoman Empire was not an exception and in 1567 the first Armenian book was published in its capital, Constantinople. In time Constantinople became one of the main centers of the Armenian book printing and preserved its role till the beginning of the 20th century. After a short typographic activity of Abgar Tokatetsi (1568 - 1569) and Yeremia Kyomurjian (1677-1678) in Constantinople, in the 17th century Sargis Evdokatsi’s, Grigor Marzvantsi’s and Astvatsatur Konstandnupolsetsi’s publishing houses were established, which ran constantly and had fruitful typographic activity for a long time. Among the famous Western Armenian publishers were also Pogos Arapian, Sargis Dpir, Chnchin Hovhannes and others. Till 1800 almost 350 Armenian books had been published only in Constantinople. Next to the early religious and moral publications, historical, fiction, educational, scientific and other literature was published in Old and Modern Armenian, including translated and author’s literature. The Armenian publishing houses were established in Smyrna, Armash, Van, Mush, Bursa, Adana, Adrianapole, Adabazar, Konya, Nicomedia, Samsun, Karin, Erznka, Evdokia, Kharberd, Amasia, Marzvan, Ayntap and elsewhere. During the Armenian Genocide the printing houses that were functioning in Western Armenia and in the cities of the Ottoman Empire, mostly populated with Armenians, ceased their existence. During these years hundreds of printing houses, libraries and repositories of ancient manuscripts were destroyed, tens of thousands of Armenian books were burnt.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 11:19:47 +0000
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