MAPPING A SYMBOLISED MEMORY
THE TABULA CHOROGRAPHICA ARMENICA AND THE CROSS-CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
OF ARMENIAN HOLY PLACES BETWEEN HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY
Four seminars held by Prof. Nazenie Garibian
“Matenadaran” Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts (Yerevan, Armenia)
Visiting fellow at the MemoryLab of the Department of History and Culture
Dipartimento di Storia Culture Civiltà
Memory Lab – ‘Department of Excellence 2023-2027’
Hosting professor: Anna Sirinian
The monumental manuscript map Tabula Chorographica Armenica (BUB, rot. 24) is considered one of
the most important discoveries in the Library of Bologna University of recent decades. Commissioned
in Constantinople by Luigi Ferdinando Marsili in 1691 and created by a famous learned man, Eremia
Çelepi Keomurtchian, it is an extraordinary valuable document on several levels. Neither a real
geographical/topographic map, nor featuring Armenia or other countries as historical-political
entities, the Tabula rather represents a unique onomasticon of crystalized sacred traditions and crosscultural shared heritage. Through more than 800 watercolour images and signs, accompanied with
explanatory captions, it maps almost all the religious centres, monasteries, holy sites, and places of
worship belonging to the Armenian Church or venerated by the Armenians and neighbour ethnic
groups of the region.
Prof. Nazenie Garibian will deliver four seminars presenting the Tabula as a case study of cartographic
backdrop for recording the collective memory of a historical, religious and cultural heritage. They are
distributed over five weeks between the mid-April and end of May. Using a cross-disciplinary
approach and rich iconographic material, Prof. Garibian will explore the Tabula from various
perspectives regarding the physical and symbolic “territories of memory” collected in the map itself
and its iconography.
1. The Tabula Chorographica Armenica as a Thesaurus of Historical-Cultural Memory
April 16th, 15.30-17.30h – Aula Magna, University Library of Bologna, via Zamboni 35
The seminar will present the Tabula within the context of the Armenian history and culture, highlighting the particular value of the document as representing a manuscript witness of collective memory and its importance for the study of national identity building. A special attention will be given to its conceptual
geography between physical and symbolic territories and its cross-cultural pattern featuring inscriptions in different languages and places belonging to other Christian traditions and countries. A visit to the map showcased in the Marsili Hall of the Library will close the session (17.30-18.00).
2. Designing Mental Statehood: The creation of the Tabula Chorographica Armenica
May 9th, 15.30-17.30h – Aula Gambi, P.za San Giovanni in Monte 2
The author of the Tabula Eremia Keomurtchean left a long didascalia at the top of the map, which gives us the key to understand his motivations and to consider the Tabula in a broader political and cultural environment of 17th century Constantinople. Questions such as the intellectual background of the author; the political aspirations of Armenian community; the diplomatic relations between European powers and the Ottoman Empire; the missions of count Marsili in Orient and the possible purposes of his commission will be addressed.
3-4. Between Real and Ideal Representations: The iconography and Archaeological Data
of the Tabula Chorographica Armenica
I session: May 22nd, 10-12h – Aula Gambi, P.za San Giovanni in Monte 2
II session: May 29th, 10-12h – Aula Gambi, P.za San Giovanni in Monte 2
The Tabula features a rich iconographic apparatus: palaces, thrones, pavilions, figures of men and idols, religious buildings, all carefully drawn and colored. The third seminar consists of two sessions dedicated to the iconography of the Tabula within the context of the 17th century oriental and European traditions. The first session will examine the pattern and the drawings of the map from the art history perspective, its authorship and possible models of inspiration. The second session will focus on the holy places and religious buildings, matching the most important and less studies ones with archaeological and historical data, and with photographs of survived physical monuments. The historical regions of
Erznka, Taron and Artsakh are chosen for the case study.
