The phrase In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth... (Genesis 1:1)
starts the Holy Scripture which in Armenian is Astwacashunch or God's breath.Armenia is
considered the first nation to have adopted Christianity as the state religion in the beginning
of the 4th century. The Armenian Scripture which Mesrop Mashtots and his disciples translated
in the mid-5th century is anointed the Queen of Bible Translations by European researchers.
Hence we can understand the special tradition of books in Armenia which culminated in 1666 in
Amsterdam where the first printed Armenian-language Bible was published.This volume is the
catalogue of the exhibition organized at the National Széchényi Library Budapest in 2019
supplemented by a collection of papers on the same topic. Besides the analysis and evaluation
of the Armenian Bible from the perspective of printing cultural history and theology it
presents the richness of Armenian apostolic protestant and catholic religious practice which
characterizes the Armenian life in the Ottoman Empire and the Armenian Catholic communities of
the Carpathian Basin. The biblical manuscripts and the first Armenian printed bibles that are
displayed in this volume are enriched by objects of religious tradition that reflect the
cultural linguistic and religious diversity of the Armenian society.
