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Venezia Arti | Vol. 27 | December 2018

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Research Article

Illuminating an Armenian Collection of Manuscripts

A Forgotten Treasure in the Layard Collection

Cecilia Riva    Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia    

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abstract

In 1902 Enid Layard bequeathed four illuminated Armenian manuscripts, belonging to her late husband, to the Armenian Mekhitarist College of Venice and to the Correr Museum. This survey retraces the manuscripts’ earlier provenance and their arrival in the Venetian collections. Austen Henry Layard’s private papers and publications attest to a close relationship with the Armenian community, both in Constantinople and Venice. The aim of this paper is not only to show more fully the early reception of Armenian artworks in a Western context, but also to present a first study of these manuscripts by providing some comparisons.

Published
Dec. 13, 2018
Accepted
Aug. 23, 2018
Submitted
July 5, 2018
Language
EN

Keywords: Henry Layard • Provenance • Bequests and donations • 19th century • History of Collecting

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/VA/2385-2720/2018/27/006

Copyright: © 2018 Cecilia Riva. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.