Ecclesiastical History

Page 16.

This is the description provided by Bishop Sahak 1: "The original Ecclesiastical History consists of 29 quires A quire, or 'tetrak' in Armenian, is a gathered set of folded sheets sewn together as a section of a book.. Each individual quire consists of eight folios, or 16 pages; however, one or two quires—for example, quire 16—consist of seven folios; perhaps some pages are missing from the middle. Size: 26 x 17 cm. Text area: single column, 10.5 x 12 cm. Lines: 24. Script: bolorgir A 'rounded' Armenian script that became the standard for medieval manuscripts., quite clean; here and there in the margins, there are additions of omitted text by the same scribe. Material: rough and unrefined paper. It has no binding; it is dispersed quire by quire, and occasionally the pages are loose. Condition: the top part of the book has become moldy and torn due to dampness, rendering many places illegible; it is also worm-eaten in spots. Titles and headings are in red. Initial letters of chapters are in tsaghkhagir Ornate, decorative 'flowered' letters often used to begin sections.. Date: unknown. Scribe: Thomas the Clerk. Information on the patron and recipient is missing."

Only three quires remain from the History of Sylvester, and the ends are missing; therefore, there is no colophon An inscription at the end of a manuscript providing facts about its production. or date. Based only on the type of paper, which is very rough and unrefined, as well as the style of the script, it can be inferred that the writing took place in the 12th century 2.

1. Sion The official monthly periodical of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, established in 1866. magazine, 1869, issue 9, page 216: "Manuscript books donated from India to the Museum of this Holy See. 1. Socrates the historian original: 'patmagir'; authentic first translation, written in boloragir on old cotton paper, produced a few years after the translation."
2. We consider it necessary to note that the Most Reverend Bishop’s determination of the manuscript’s date is a hypothesis, and it should be accepted as such.