Page 153 - THE ARMENIAN CHURCH_Neat

154 The Armenian Church

menian miniatures, particularly in Iran, and
Armenian miniatures influenced Byzantine
miniatures. Prayer scrolls, known as hmayil,
had an important place in the spiritual cul-
ture of the Church. They date from 1428. Ge-
nerally six to nine centimetres wide and five
to seven metres long, hmayils also contain
miniatures and colophons. The decline of
manuscript writing and miniature painting
began with the emergence of printing in the
16th Century.
2) Among the first people to print books,
the Armenians began around twenty years
after Gutenberg's invention of the printing
press. Printing was first introduced into the
diaspora and then to Armenia by members
of the clergy. Hakob Meghabard set up the
first Armenian printing press in 1512 in
Venice, Italy. He printed Urbat‘agirk‘ (Friday
Book), Tałaran (Book of Odes), Bataragatetr
(Text of the Holy Mass), Ałt‘ark‘ (collection
of prayers, ancient popular traditions per-
taining to medicine, spiritual healing, and
cosmology), and the Parzatumar (calendar
and the lunar system). Hovhannes Terzenetsi
translated and published the Gregorian Ca-
lendar in 1584 in Rome, Italy, Archbishop
Khachadour Gesaratsi printed the Psalter in
1638 in New Julfa, Iran, Vosgan Vartabed
printed the Bible in 1666-8 in Amsterdam,
Netherlands, Krikor Marzvanetsi printed