History of Vardan and the Armenian War

Pages 219—227. Index of the book (list of names with brief explanation).

Pages 228—239. Explanation of obscure and difficult-to-understand words in this book (mostly the error-filled explanations from the Vardants dictionary, such as: "Kumid is a Persian word, about which it is said in our old dictionary: 'Gomez is an herb of the meadow,' which other books call soap for washing").

This, the fourth printing in number, is designated in our publication with the letter S².

5. Eghishe's fifth printing was in 1828 in Venice, in small 12mo format, totaling 408 pages. "The publisher is Fr. A. Bagratuni, who also has a beautiful message at the beginning titled 'To Eghishe'" (A. Ghazikyan, ibid., 572).

First title page: History of the Holy War of the Vardanants by Eghishe. In Venice, 1828.

Second title page: History of the War of Vardan and the Armenians by Eghishe Vardapet. In Venice, at Saint Lazarus, 1277 [Armenian Era].

1—4 covers
5—6 message "To Eghishe"
7—362 Eghishe's text
363—378 Words of exhortation by the same Eghishe Vardapet regarding monks
379—381 To the Philologists
382—392 Other readings
393—408 Index of names

We include the "To the Philologists" section, pp. 379—381.

"According to the proliferation of copies of the book, the errors of the scribes also multiply and double, whether involuntarily or voluntarily out of ignorance. Eghishe, a book desired by all, knows this trial. The copies that came into our hands were six: four complete, two partial. Only three have clear dates: 1120, 1146, 1150. From these, we took the first, which is the oldest and found to be more accurate than all, as our model, correcting the involuntary and obvious errors of the scribe with the agreement of the others. But the 1150 copy, which some considered the best and error-free faithful writing because it was modeled on an ancient one, written in 1116, was found, upon close examination, to be more opulent than the others with two types of errors.
"Although the author calls the sections of the book 'modeled chapters' in the introduction, the manuscripts only have 'model' in some places, and 'chapter' nowhere. For this reason, we held to that. The first model has no chapter or heading in the manuscripts, but follows along with the introduction; however, as it seemed appropriate to others, it also seemed appropriate to us to distinguish it according to the author's own hint; only where it seemed appropriate to us, we cut from there.
"As the first printed edition of the Byzantines also informs us, the heading of the fifth model is not in any manuscript. But the sixth they label with the heading of the same sixth, and they go together until the seventh, but only in one that calls it the fifth; however, it also has the heading of the same sixth. We, having headed it according to the author's introduction, did not want to disturb the chapter of the sixth for the moment, because of the three printings before us. And we cannot say whether the fifth model itself is lost or was cunningly [omitted] by Barzuma, or if the chapter of the sixth fell here and there, wandering. The order of the history, although continuous, does not allow one to guess anything with certainty.
"Having given this much necessary information of faithfulness to the philologists, let us set in order the important parts from the various readings of the copies."