The History of Sebeos

CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE PRESENT PUBLICATION

First: In addition to the manuscripts used in previous editions, we have also used manuscript MM Matenadaran No. 2935, the fragmentary copy kept in the Yeritsyan archive (file 153, f. 124), and fragment No. 1343.

We have also used manuscripts MM No. 1898 and 2679, which are not manuscripts of the "History of Sebeos" itself, but contain excerpts drawn from this History. These are older than the oldest manuscript of the "History of Sebeos" that has reached us and contain noteworthy variants and additions.

Second: Many passages that were corrupted in the manuscripts and printed in that same state have been corrected.

Based on the new manuscripts, a number of units present in the original text have been restored, which are being published for the first time as part of the "History of Sebeos."

The author's afterword, which had lost its place in the manuscripts that reached us, is published in this edition in its proper place for the first time.

Third: In the section for footnotes on variants, we have primarily presented the variants of manuscript No. 2639 (the master copy). From the other manuscripts, only important variants have been recorded.

Except for the master copy, all other manuscripts were copied not by ordinary scribes, but by intellectuals of the 19th century; therefore, some of their readings carry the significance of scientific decipherment. For example, the scribes of manuscripts No. 2935 and 6454 copied the error "zanstoragrel" unsigned in the Anonymous section, restoring the correct form present in the original, "zanstoragreal" unsigned. Another scribe in the "Letter of Confession" restored the reading "yami yerek-tasanerordi" in the thirteenth year, instead of which the oldest manuscript has the error "yami ZhG yerek-tasanerordi" in the year 13th thirteen. Sometimes incorrect decipherments were also made, which we have also shown in the section for variants.

Alongside manuscript variants, we have also noted the readings of printed texts, among which there are some that slipped in as mere printing errors, independent of the will of the publishers. In such cases, next to the footnote variant, we added the note "printing error" in parentheses, without which the error might have left the impression of being an actual variant. For example, in the Malkhasyants edition (page 52), "sepuhn" the younger noble is printed, whereas "sepuhkn" the younger nobles is written in the manuscript. We have printed the correct form of the manuscript, and have moved the error to the footnote, writing "printing error" next to it.