Map Close  
Person info Close  
Information Close  
Source reference Close  
  Svenska
 
Index

Armenia

The Urartu Civilisation

Victory for Independence

Artashisian Dynasty on the Armenian Throne

Armenia caught between Rome and the Arsacids

The Acceptance of Christianity

Defending Christianity

Armenia Under the Bagratouni Dynasty

Cilicia - the New Armenia

Armenia Under Turanian Rule

The Renaissance or the Resurrection of Armenia

The Eastern Question

Russia in the Caucasus

The Armenian Question

Battle on Two Fronts

Tsarist Russia Against the Armenians

The Revolution of the Young Turks and the Armenian People on the Eve of World War I

The First World War

The Resurrection of Armenia

Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

- Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

Eastern Armenia

Western Armenia

"The Fateful Years" (1914-1917)

"Hopes and Emotions" (March-October, 1917)

The Bolshevik Revolution and Armenia

Transcaucasia Adrift (November, 1917

Dilemmas (March-April, 1918)

War and Independence (April-May, 1918)

The Republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia

The Suppliants (June-October, 1918)

In conclusion

Soviet Armenia

The Second Independent Republic of Armenia

Epilogue

Previous page Page 198 Next page Smaller font Larger font Print friednly version  
The first Armenian printing houses were established in 1565 in Venice, by Abkar of Tokat who had been sent by the Catholicos of Etchmiadzin, Mikael I, as emissary to Pope Pius IV in order to study the art of printing at the Vatican court. 83 Two years later the printing house was moved to Constantinople and was situated in the backyard of an Armenian church. It was the same printing house that published the first Armenian grammar-book for teaching in elementary schools.

Thereafter, one Armenian printing house after another was opened in Armenian communities around the world: 1616 in Lemberg, 1639 in Isfahan (published the first printed book in the Middle East), 1660 in Amsterdam, 1677 in Constantinople, 1758 in Izmir, 1772 in Madras and finally in Etchmiadzin in 1774.

Initially, the Mkhitarists used the Armenian printing houses for their publications, but later opened their own printing houses, one in Trieste (1776) and one in Venice (1789).

The printing house in the Lazarian Institute, in Moscow, founded in 1820, included foundry which, during the 19th century, produced the majority of the Armenian letters for the other Armenian printing houses.

Cultural Works

The renaissance of thought and patriotism of the Armenian people is closely related to the development and expansion of their educational institutions and cultural centres.

The great Armenian Catholicos, Nerses, pronounced at the beginning of the 19th century: "The development of thought and the expansion of education are the most important terms for the maturity and progress of the Armenian people." From this time on, the Armenians devoted themselves whole-heartedly to the studies of science, literature and technology and showed an enthusiasm and competence that spoke to the fact that it was not only the individual who would benefit, but the whole of the Armenian nation.

Up to 1790, education of the Christian population in the Ottoman Empire was forbidden and only a small number of religious educational books for the priests were allowed. As soon as this prohibition was lifted, the teaching sphere of the Armenian priests expanded, so that they opened a boys' school in Constantinople between 1790 and 1800, and from 1820 they also began to open girls' schools.

At the same time the foundations of the first Armenian schools in Armenian communities abroad, among others in Astrakhan (1810), Calcutta (1821) and Rostov, were laid. Since the Ottoman and the Russian governments were in no way willing to support such schools 84, the matter of opening new Armenian schools rested only on the economical resources of the Armenians themselves, in the form of contributions from Armenian families, and donations.

From the outset these schools were based on the democratic spirit of the Armenian people and worked according to the right to free education and teaching, despite the expenses which the schools were compelled to pay to the state.