Incontri mediterranei nel Duecento: gli Armeni a Roma e i loro manoscritti

The production of Armenian manuscripts in Rome during the Middle Ages seems to have been flourishing, especially during the 13th century. The two oldest extant manuscripts, dating respectively from the years 1221 and 1226 (or 1228), should probably be better classified as examples of the early circulation of Armenian codices in medieval Rome than as local products; but seven later manuscripts are explicitly dated and situated in the City of the Popes in the years from 1239 to 1269 by their detailed colophons. In this study, the authors deal in particular with a handful of illuminated manuscripts within the extant witnesses of this group of Armenian codices from the Roman Duecento. The analysis of their different styles and iconographies shows interesting phenomena of convivencia between cultures and highlights the many traces of contacts with other visual traditions. In fact, various trends, motifs, and elements that are characteristic of Armenian illumination – from Greater Armenia or, conversely, from the more sophisticated painting tradition of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia – can here be found side by side with motifs of probable Byzantine origin, or are combined with significant Western elements. As for the contexts of their production and circulation, an interesting picture of the forms and places of the Armenian presence in Rome emerges from the study of these manuscripts in conjunction with the other, relevant epigraphic evidence.