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Copyrighted Material

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Armenian Calligraphy | ՀԱՅԿԱԿԱՆ ԱՐՎԵՍՏԱԳՐՈՒԹՅԻԻՆ

Read the book abstract here

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The vision of this project is to create a book that encompasses the most fascinating examples of Armenian calligraphy through time; following its evolution and placing it on a stage upon which it can be studied as an art form in its own right. It will be designed to serve as a source of reference and inspiration to anyone interested in this subject, and to illuminate its future by offering inspiring examples of contemporary calligraphic work.

Author statement

“The noblest acquisition of mankind is speech, and the most useful art is writing. The first, eminently distinguishes man from the brute creation; the second, from uncivilized savages...”; it has been so long known and used, that few men think upon the subject; so inattentive are we to the greatest benefits, from their having been long enjoyed...” (Thomas Astle “The Origins and Progress of Writing” Second Edition, London 1803)

These words were written in 1803, when writing was already far from the only means of thought transmission; even as the printing press took over the tasks of mass information dissemination with its incomparable capacity to replicate the written word at scale, writing was still considered the most personal, intimate and ultimately the most beautiful way of communication. Even today, two centuries later, when one receives a hand-written letter something very familiar and happy occurs, as if for a second, one can feel the presence of a friend, a lover or a long missed parent. Everything written by hand becomes explicitly unique.

Calligraphy is the script in its purest forms. Its virtues aspire preciseness, beauty, distinctness, simplicity, originality, proportion and ultimately unity, mastership and freedom. It can be regarded as a temporary and spatial art simultaneously, because, by following the form we 'reverse' the time and, reading the traces of the author’s struggle with the material, we can experience almost the same state as the artist at the time of creation.

The book's richly illustrated historical research will address script systems present in the Near East from as early as the late Iron age (4 millennium B.C.), through the time of invention of the Armenian Alphabet in 405 A.D and to the present day. The book, designed in line with authentic layouts of classical Armenian manuscripts intends to offer a blend of academic research on the evolution of the Armenian writing tradition and of the contemporary calligraphic practice. It's rich and mostly forgotten legacy- (the term 'calligraphy' can be rightfully applied to the signatures of Armenian Cilician Kings, letters of Komitas, Sayat-Nova & Archile Gorky, as well as correspondence of late 19th century Armenian poets beautifully executed in stylized Sła'gir, etc.) – will be the subject of this volume.

The proposed volume will include essays from M. Stone, D. Kouymjian & H. Lehmann's “Album of Armenian Paleography” (Aarhus Press, 2002), providing the most recent research on Armenian paleography with regard to the letter types and their use over time. An insightful analysis of the arithmetical symbolism and mystical reverence of the Armenian Alphabet will be offered in an article by James Russell from Harvard University. A special chapter will be dedicated to the studies of Armenian calligraphy within the framework of classical Armenian education prior to the genocide, including (for the first time published in English & Hebrew) a practical guide to Armenian calligraphy from Vienna (1834) , Tiflis & Nor Nachijevan (1870).

Particular importance will be placed on the quality of printing, layout, design and typography as well as the binding and finishing of the book. The intent of this project is to produce a superb volume of reference and inspiration.

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Erkatagir (Iron Script)


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The most stunning examples of Armenian calligraphy lie in the tens of thousands of manuscripts that have been preserved to this day. As works of art, these manuscripts have fostered a period of scientific and philosophical learning for a number of academic (philological and linguistic) communities, and are themselves living cultural remnants of exceptional aesthetic value.

Over 30,000 manuscripts survived the devastation wrought upon the Armenian nation by continuous invasions of Arabs, Mongols and Ottoman Turks (i.e., over 10,000 manuscripts were burned by Seljuk Turks in 1070 after a 40-year siege of the capital Kapan of the Suinik province of the Armenian Bagratuni Kingdom), and today parts of collections are housed at libraries and museums in Jerusalem, Venice (San Lazzaro Island), New Julfa, Moscow, Paris, London and Los Angeles. The largest collection by far is that housed at the Matenadaran (Մատենադարան) in Yerevan, Armenia with more than 11,000 manuscripts in total. The oldest surviving complete Armenian manuscript is the Mlk'é Gospel of 862 at San Lazzaro.

The term Erkatagir Երկատազիր has engendered some controversy among specialists, for erkat‘ or 'iron' in Armenian and gir 'letter' translates in a literal sense to 'iron letters', the exact meaning of which is not totally clear. The famous New Dictionary of the Armenian Language published by the Venice Mekhitarist fathers in 1836-7 defines the word as meaning 'written with an iron stylus' or with derivative meanings of 'old manuscript', and 'capital letter'.

The term Mesropian erkat‘agir, suggesting letters invented or used by Mesrop, describes the script used exclusively in the earliest Armenian Gospel manuscripts, lapidary inscriptions, and the Jerusalem mosaics. As we have seen above, of the two theories that explain the word erkat‘agir, neither is totally convincing; one suggests an iron stylus was used to form the letters, while the other contends that a ferrous oxide was employed in the ink of early Armenian manuscripts.

The script is monumental by style, majuscule, and its letters are large, very erect, with gracefully rounded lines connecting the vertical elements of the letters (or springing from them). All the letters were written on the base line between two imaginary parallel lines, with ascending and descending elements being only slightly extended. The exception is with letters ֆ and ք where those elements extend more drastically. Across the range of manuscripts, up to 10 varieties of this script are observable.

Round Erkatagir is characterized by a contrast of the thick vertical forms and razor-thin connecting curved strokes. The proportion of height to width is typically 5:3, 4:3, 3:2. The same proportion is applied to the width of characters and the distances between them. The columns are well defined and characters are clearly separated, which gives the script a more geometrical essence and feeling.

Straight Erkatagir differs by slanting to the right at varying angles. Connecting strokes have more variety, and the proportion of height to width is 1:1. Characters are placed more closely than in Round Erkatagir. The height of letters comprises half of the space between lines. These factors give this particular script a certain dynamism.

Seventeenth century citations make it clear that Erkat‘agir in the minds of the scribes had become an archaic script used for decorations and titles. We have seen that large erkat‘agir was the preferred script of early Armenian stone inscriptions. An iron chisel was used to carve the letters.25 Indeed, there is an instantly perceptible monumentality in early inscriptions; it is as though the letters were fashioned from iron and would, therefore, endure forever. The term erkat‘agir, therefore, likely refers to a type of writing made by instruments of iron (lapidary inscriptions), which were the same in form as textual majuscule. In early manuscripts erkat‘agir was especially used for the Holy Gospels, thus associating the 'iron letters' with the Old Testament tradition of writing the holy text with a stylus of iron. If the term originated out of the scribal tradition from early Gospel manuscripts, one can speculate that the initial meaning of erkat‘agir was simply the equivalent of 'scriptural writing.'

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Bolorgir (Minuscule Script)


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Bolorgir or minuscule, the ancestor of modern Armenian type fonts, dominated scribal hands from the 13th to the 16th centuries, and continued on well through the 19th. It has developed more elegant and graphic forms and although by its definition it is a round script, the characters are slanted and letters appear to have sharp corners. The contrast between the base shape and the connecting strokes is not as extreme as in Erkatagir, and it is a more cursive type of script (characters are placed closer to one another), with smaller sizes and altered shapes. It is a “four line” script with the body of the letters positioned between base-line and cap-line with extensions placed between ascending and descending lines that terminate the typeface. The proportion of the script’s height to width is 1:1, 1:1.5, 1:2. Some characters are composed of two elements, therefore growing twice larger in width, with the height of the letters including the extension of doubles or triples. There are two varieties of Boloragir: the Cilician and the Eastern (Armenia proper), with the former being more articulate and precise, while the latter retains some of the cornerstone elements of Erkatagir.

A hypothetical reform or standardization of Armenian bolorgir was localized in the late 12th or early 13th century at the Cilician court. It was the moment of active contact and interaction between the Armenians and the incoming Crusaders from France and Germany. The impact of the Latin West on Armenian culture in language and the arts has been amply documented. Several 13th century Armenian manuscripts were copied in Rome, Perugia, and other Italian cities.45 13th -century Armenian documents from the royal court of Cilician Armenia addressed to the Pope and written in Latin have also survived. Nevertheless, the impact of Medieval Latin or Greek on the evolution of Armenian script has yet to be thoroughly understood.








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Notrgir (Notary Script)


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Notrgir (notary script) is a blend of Boloragir and Sła'gir with predominant small and cursive forms. It was used in the 17th and 18th centuries. The secretary working as a scribe (in Latin notarius, in Armenian dpir ) at the royal court or the Catholicosate, by necessity employed time-saving cursive versions of bolorgir and even smaller notrgir letters. The structure could have entered Armenian writing traditions from either the late Byzantine Greek or Latin periods.







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Sła'gir (Cursive Script)


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About the Author

Ruben Malayan (1971) is an Armenian-born artist, photographer and graphic designer, based in Tel Aviv, Israel. He holds degrees from Terlemezian Art College (painting) & from the State Institute of Fine Arts (graphics) in Yerevan, Armenia. Since 1990 has participated in annual exhibitions at the Union of Armenian Artists and the Armenian Institute of Fine Arts. Ruben Malayan is founder of the "Armenian Genocide of 1915-23 in Contemporary Graphic & Art Posters" international graphic design competition which has received wide acclaim and coverage in the international press, with winning posters published in a number of books and magazines in Israel and abroad. During his work in the Netherlands (2000-2002), Ruben participated in the documentary "Virtual Fatherlands" by Dutch filmmaker Maartje Nevejan. Recently, Ruben's graphic posters were published in Yair Auron's new book titled "Israel & Armenian Genocide: The Banality of Indifference" (and in a number of subsequent volumes), published in Hebrew by Tel Aviv Open University Press.

In a series of lectures sponsored by the Slifka Center at Yale University, Ruben will discuss (forthcoming Nov.2009) comparative genocides through the prism of contemporary cinema and graphic art; he will examine the calligraphy of the sacred manuscripts, including Jewish "Tfilin" and Armenian "Hmail"s as part of his research on his upcoming book "Art of Armenian Calligraphy", a volume he co-writes with prominent Armenologists Michael Stone (Hebrew University, Jerusalem), Dikran Kouymjian (California State University) and James Russell (Harvard University).