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Topic:Noravank
Showing 2 of 2 matching publications (200 total) · catalogue updated 2026-07-22
Journal ArticlePaywalled

Step'anos Ōrbēlean et l'inscription de l'église Surb-Karapet de Noravank (Stepanos Orbelean and the Inscription of the Surb Karapet Church at Noravank)

Augé, Isabelle · Ouzounian, Agnès, 2025
Revue des Études Arméniennes, Vol. 43 (2025), pp. 301–340 (Peeters); DOI 10.2143/REA.43.0.3295027

Stepanos Orbelean, the thirteenth-century historian of Syunik, embedded documents, deeds and inscriptions in his chronicle. This article compares two versions of one deed he himself wrote: a long testamentary text preserved as a chapter of the chronicle, and a monumental inscription carved in the Surb Karapet church at Noravank. The authors revise and retranslate the inscription alongside a fresh translation of the chronicle version. Setting the two in parallel, they probe how the historian used his sources and what relationship existed between the now-lost archival documents that served as prototypes, the inscriptions, and the quotations reproduced in the historiography.

Stepanos OrbeleanNoravankArmenian epigraphySyunikmonastic deeds
FrenchRead Step'anos Ōrbēlean et l'inscription de l'église Surb-Karapet de Noravank (Stepanos Orbelean and the Inscription of the Surb Karapet Church at Noravank) (opens in a new tab)
Journal ArticleOpen Access

Essai pour une nouvelle lecture du bas-relief du tympan inférieur du narthex de l'église Saint-Étienne le Protomartyr du monastère de Noravankʻ (Toward a New Reading of the Bas-Relief of the Lower Tympanum of the Narthex of the Church of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, Noravank Monastery)

Leyloyan-Yekmalyan, Anna, 2025
Matenadaran: Medieval and Early Modern Armenian Studies (MEMAS), Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 163–186 (Mesrop Mashtots Matenadaran / Brepols); eISSN 3041-5063

Re-reads the carved lower tympanum of the Noravank narthex (founded 1261), whose composition centers on the Virgin and Child. The bird beneath the Child's feet is identified as the apocryphal clay bird animated by Jesus's breath, echoing the Father animating Adam; the lion the Child sits on is the Lion of Judah from the vision in Esdras. Old Testament prophets flank the Virgin, and a large letter Ա with a three-pointed arrow aimed at Mary's ear evokes Ephrem the Syrian's conception-through-the-ear formula, reinforced by the word ԲԱՌՆ and the surrounding Armenian inscription, which the author translates. The reading ties Armenian monumental sculpture to apocryphal and patristic exegesis.

NoravankArmenian medieval sculptureChristian iconographyArmenian Apostolic Churchapocryphal traditions
FrenchRead Essai pour une nouvelle lecture du bas-relief du tympan inférieur du narthex de l'église Saint-Étienne le Protomartyr du monastère de Noravankʻ (Toward a New Reading of the Bas-Relief of the Lower Tympanum of the Narthex of the Church of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, Noravank Monastery) (opens in a new tab)

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