The History of Sebeos

as you will see at the end of this volume; and at the beginning, 'History of Bishop Sebeos on Heraclius'."

Here, Mihrdatyan was unable to correctly present his manuscript and mixed up the information regarding its archetype, i.e., the information relating to manuscript No. 2639 ("it was written in the year 1221 in Baghesh... placed at the end of the colophon...") and the data of the newer transcription he actually used ("at the beginning, 'History of Bishop Sebeos on Heraclius'"). This confusion gave Malkhasyants occasion to write: "A great doubt arises here. Mihrdatyan says that this manuscript had a title at the beginning: 'History of Bishop Sebeos on Heraclius,' whereas the manuscript in fact bears no title and not even the name of the author (as we see, Malkhasyants understood it as if Mihrdatyan’s word referred to manuscript No. 2639—G. A.). To explain this apparent contradiction, we must assume that the aforementioned title was on the new copy in Mihrdatyan’s hands, which he had received from the Catholicos Nerses"8. This is a correct assumption. Indeed, the title was written on the newer copy, and Mihrdatyan saw that very title. It is known that on most of the manuscripts copied from manuscript No. 2639, the copyists added titles; the scribe of the manuscript used by Mihrdatyan acted in the same way.

Mihrdatyan, expressing himself more definitively on page XIV, clarifies the illusion he created on page X, that the manuscript he used "was written in the year 1221." On the aforementioned page XIV, he writes: "In the year 1850 of the Savior, upon our going to Tiflis... having seen it (the manuscript—G. A.) with His Holiness (Catholicos Nerses Ashtaraketsi—G. A.), which was copied from the original that is in Holy Etchmiadzin, I requested it, and His Holiness granted it to us." As we see from the expression we have emphasized, Mihrdatyan says clearly that he used not the manuscript located in Etchmiadzin and copied in the year 1221 (=1672), but rather a "copy" of it.

He confirms the same fact in an article written in 1853 in "Masis" (No. 64), where he simultaneously reports that the manuscript which served as the basis for his publication was copied by the monks of Etchmiadzin. "Since the copyist of the original was one of the monks of Holy Etchmiadzin, it concerned their honor more than ours." It is on this manuscript copied in Etchmiadzin that the title "History of Bishop Sebeos on Heraclius" had been added.

"After acquiring and copying the manuscript in Tiflis, upon our going to the Holy See, we compared it with the original, in which the chronicle section (he means the Anonymous's passage—G. A.) was missing in two places; the first one written was missing four lines, the second one was missing seven lines; and there were differences in chronology, at which time we filled the missing parts from the other, more ancient copy" (p. XIV).

Thus, Mihrdatyan went from Tiflis to Etchmiadzin, there his...

8 Malkhasyants, p. 8.