Our objective is to create and develop a fundamental web environment which, to the extent possible, would be home for every published and unpublished material related to Armenia and the Armenians on a variety of topics, including literature, history, art, philosophy, religion, etc.

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With the loss of their statehood at the beginning of the present millennium, Armenians were compelled to leave their homeland and were dispersed all over the world. Yet, deep in their hearts, they maintained an undying hope of returning home to their native land. Wherever they set foot, their first concern was to preserve their culture, religion and language; they built churches, founded schools, libraries and somewhat later printing presses, thus restoring cultural ties severed between ancient and new times. It may be obviously understood what tremendous material, moral and physical efforts were required to carry out such measures in a foreign environment, in a foreign language, under other religions and numerous other suppressive circumstances. More

Old printed books are the intermediate stage between manuscript works and books of later periods, being similar in certain respects to manuscripts (title pages, a burdensome mass of information, colophons, abbreviated words, memorandums, etc.), and differing from books of the new period. For that reason separate rules used in preparing descriptions were worked out for old printed books, according to which this (first) volume of the Bibliography covers a wide sphere and more detailed elements of description (relatively more limited information being required by books included in later volumes). Besides that, contrary to later volumes, it also includes old printed books in large libraries and in private collections abroad. More