Shaping Readerly Taste: Paratextuality in the Publishing Mission of Mxit'ar of Sebastia
Arlen, Jesse · 2023
Applies 'history of the book' theory to show how Mxit'ar of Sebastia, founder of the Mekhitarist Congregation, used paratexts (title pages, frontispieces, dedications, prefaces, illustrations, epilogues) in his publishing mission to shape how his books were read. Argues he presented himself as a 'second Maštoc'' and his students as heirs to the fifth-century Holy Translators, transmitting Armenian Christian literary tradition under the Roman Catholic Church. Links early modern Armenian print culture to questions of identity and religious continuity.
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Arlen, Jesse 2023. Shaping Readerly Taste: Paratextuality in the Publishing Mission of Mxit'ar of Sebastia. Armeniaca. International Journal of Armenian Studies, Vol. 2, pp. 119–142 (Edizioni Ca' Foscari, Venice); DOI 10.30687/arm/9372-8175/2023/01/006. https://doi.org/10.30687/arm/9372-8175/2023/01/006
What this offers a reader
Open-access, readable introduction to how Armenian books were made and marketed in the 1700s.
Peer-reviewed book-history study; author is at the Zohrab Information Center / Fordham.
Shows how a diaspora religious order kept Armenian language and letters alive through printing.
The story of the Mekhitarist monks who became one of the great preservers of Armenian culture.
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