page_title: Matenadaran
section_title: Historic predecessors
hierarchical_section_title: Matenadaran / History / Historic predecessors
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Posąg Mesropa Masztoca. Matenadaran. Erywań, Armenia. English: Statue of Mesrop Mashtots. Matenadaran. Yerevan, Armenia. Русский: Статуя Месропа Маштоца. Матенадаран. Ереван, Армения. Հայերեն: Հուշարձան Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցի. Երևանի Մաշտոցի անվան Մատենադարան. Երևան, Հայաստան. This is a photo of a monument in Armenia identified by the ID 1.6/81.6
context_page_description: The Matenadaran, officially the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, is a museum, repository of manuscripts, and a research institute in Yerevan, Armenia. It is the world's largest repository of Armenian manuscripts.
  It was established in 1959 on the basis of the nationalized collection of the Armenian Church, formerly held at Etchmiadzin. Its collection has gradually risen since its establishment, mostly from individual donations. One of the most prominent landmarks of Yerevan, it is named after Mesrop Mashtots, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, whose statue stands in front of the building.
context_section_description: The earliest mention of a manuscript repository in Armenia was recorded in the writings of the fifth century historian Ghazar Parpetsi, who noted the existence of such a repository at the Etchmiadzin catholicosate in Vagharshapat, where Greek and Armenian language texts were kept. Sources remain silent on the fate of the Etchmiadzin matenadaran until the 15th century, when the catholicosate returned from Sis in Cilicia. Manuscript repositories existed at major monasteries in medieval Armenia, such as at Haghpat (Haghpat matenadaran), Sanahin, Saghmosavank, Tatev, Geghard, Kecharis, Hromkla, and Bardzraberd. In some cases, monastic complexes have separate structures as manuscript repositories. Sometimes manuscripts would be transferred to caves to avoid destruction by foreign invaders. Thousands of manuscripts in Armenia were destroyed over the course of the tenth to fifteenth centuries during the Turkic and Mongol invasions. According to the medieval Armenian historian Stepanos Orbelian, the Seljuk Turks were responsible for the burning of over 10,000 Armenian manuscripts in Baghaberd in 1170.
caption: The statue of Mesrop Mashtots, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet in front of the Matenadaran.
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