Printed and Bound in Constantinople
[ATHANASIUS, Pseudo-.]
Գիրք պատասխանական Ս[ր]բ[ո]յն Աթանասի. Հարցմանց Ս[ր]բ[ո]յն Կիւրղի Ե[րուսաղ]էմացւոյ [Book of the answers of Saint Athanasius to the questions of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem]. Constantinople, Chnchin Hovhannes, [1749].
8vo, pp. [2], 4, [6], 5–195, [1]; text within frame of type ornaments, full-page woodcuts to recto and verso of first leaf, another woodcut facing p. 5, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces; loss to blank outer margin of title leaf, some staining to margins and especially to last page, slight worming to upper margins towards the end; otherwise a good copy in a contemporary Constantinople binding of dark brown calf over thin wooden boards, the covers roll-tolled and stamped in blind to a panel design, three raised bands to spine; corners and endcaps worn, some worming to covers, rubbed, lacking front free endpaper, upper joint split; inscriptions in Armenian to rear endpapers, modern bookplate of B. Outtier to front pastedown.
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Գիրք պատասխանական Ս[ր]բ[ո]յն Աթանասի. Հարցմանց Ս[ր]բ[ո]յն Կիւրղի Ե[րուսաղ]էմացւոյ [Book of the answers of Saint Athanasius to the questions of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem].
Rare theological and moral treatise in Armenian, framed as a dialogue between St Cyril of Jerusalem and St Athanasius of Alexandria, printed and almost certainly bound in Constantinople, and illustrated with three woodcuts.
The text opens with consideration of death, the body and the soul, and ends with sin and gossip. The woodcuts depict the Ascension of Christ, and St Athanasius.
The first Armenian book to be printed in Constantinople appeared in 1567, and in time the Ottoman capital became one of the main centres of Armenian printing; by 1800 almost 350 Armenian books had been published there.
The binding is likely by a member of the Armenian or Greek community in Constantinople.
N. Voskanyan et al., Armenian Books from 1512–1800 (Yerevan, 1988), 503.