Medieval Armenian Literature

The colophons of the Armenian manuscripts take a special place with their original and rich information among the medieval Armenian written monuments.
In the work we have attempted to thoroughly examine the components of the Armenian colophons, the latters’ diverse ways of expression. We have done some classifications of the Armenian colophons, according to the time of writing, the authors of colophons and the content. We have individually represented the units we encounter in the Armenian colophons, if possible, comparing this all with the identical manifestations occurring in other manuscript traditions.

Pour le paléographe, il est plus commode de travailler avec des classifications nettes et des périodisations distinctes qu’en suivant une tradition confuse. Les styles d’écriture arménienne ne sont pas clairement définis, et il est commun de mélanger un type avec un autre. Une véritable catégorisation universelle n’est véritablement apparue qu’avec l’imprimerie, où l’idiosyncrasie du scribe laisse la place à une implacable logique des formes de lettres.

This book contains the lectures concerning the history of the exploration of the  Armenian  medieval art during 1830-1950.It represents the impact of the scholars of different nationalities in the exploration of the Armenian architecture, sculpture, mural painting, manuscript illumination, silverwork and etc

Le Muséon 128 (2015), p. 381-414.

This paper deals with the ancient Armenian translations of Greek
philosophical texts (esp. the Neoplatonic corpus). Before focusing on this topic,
a broad overview on the presence of Armenian students in the Greek schools in
Late Antiquity will be presented, followed by a survey of the Armenian translations
issued from the so-called “Hellenizing school”, through which the works
necessary for learning the disciplines (artes) of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric,
and dialectic) were introduced into Armenia. The core of this article will
deal with the Neoplatonist heritage and the translatio studiorum in Armenia,
with special emphasis on the Armenian translations of the Greek commentaries
of the Neoplatonic philosopher David, who was called the “Invincible” in the
Armenian tradition. The second part of the paper will pay particular attention
to some methodological criteria that should be followed while studying such
works in Greek and in Armenian. After some information on the approach of
Classical philologists to the Armenian translations from Greek, the importance
of cross-comparison and of an interdisciplinary investigation will be stressed in
conclusion.

Gregory of Narek, the most remarkable Armenian author of all times
and Doctor of the Church, was a master of two discursive modes,
one pessimistic and the other full of light. This article analyses his
ways of comprehending the will of man and will of God through
these two modes.

Published by Four Courts Press.

The past few decades have witnessed an upsurge in the study of previously marginalized ethno-linguistic communities of the late Ottoman Empire. New findings on the Karamanlis, research on crypto-Armenian or crypto-Jewish communities as well as investigations on the aljamiado literature in Greek or Slavic languages have reversed the picture set by nationalist historiographies by pointing out to the complexity and multiplicity of Ottoman ‘identities’. However, the case of a small Anatolian community of ‘Hayhurum’ (‘Armenian-Greeks’ in Arm.) who spoke Armenian while professing Greek orthodox doctrines seems to have been largely overlooked.

The Hayhurum were mostly located around the district of Eghin (modern-day Kemaliye) on the Euphrates, while some of them seem to have moved westwards towards Bithynia. During the exchange of populations in 1923, they were deported and settled to different parts of Greece. The aim of the present paper will be to offer a prefatory study of this small and isolated ‘minority within minorities’ based on two articles by P. Pashalidis and G. Anastassiadis published in 1915 and 1948 in katharevousa Greek (I have recently translated the articles to Turkish as part of a monograph to be published by İstos Publications in Istanbul). It will be argued that while both articles provide us with important factual information on the provenance, location, traditions and fate of the Hayhurum, they are also heavily imbued with nationalistic feelings and intend to prove the Greek origins of their object of study and are thus not entirely reliable. An introduction to the few other remaining sources and a discussion on the secondary literature related to the field will follow. Visual documentation on churches attended by the Hayhurum communities of İstanbul and İzmir will also be included.

The Alan kingdom was the most powerful polity in the medieval North Caucasus, sitting astride the western end of the Silk Roads. However, due to the relative lack of written records from the region, a number of very basic facts about it are still disputed. This paper proposes a new interpretation of one such issue- whether it comprised a single kingdom, or two.

The author summarises the results of his search for parallels between the Armenian epic “Sasna cṙer” (“Daredevils of Sassoun”) and the Mahābhārata. The comparative study has revealed considerable similarity in the "ethnographic substratum" of both epics, particularly that relating to the archaic social organization mirrored by the epic. The earliest layer of both the Armenian and the Indian epics preserves the memory of a rural, largely pastoral society, in which an important role was played by young warrior brotherhoods. In the Armenian epic, this is indicated by recurrent motifs: the young heroes' rampage followed by exile, the foundation of their own outpost in the backwoods, young warrior brotherhoods, their defense of herds and warding off enemy attacks, battle frenzy (a common characteristic of all the Sassoun heroes), their immutable mentor and leader ("uncle") Keri Toros, allusions to orgiastic feasts, traces of premarital freedom by young men and women, etc. Among the Armenians, these motifs were supported by the existence until recent times of the institution of youth age-set groups, described by ethnographers. A comparative study of the Armenian epic reveals its hitherto unnoticed socio-historical aspects. Its wider use for studying other epic traditions (not only Indo-European but also those of other peoples inhabiting the Caucasus and the Eurasian steppes) will contribute to Comparative epic studies.

В статье суммированы результаты сравнительного исследования армянского эпоса о «неистовых сасунцах» («Sasna cṙer» = «Давид Сасунский») и «Махабхараты». Выявлено значительное сходство их этнографического субстрата, пре-жде всего отражаемой эпосом архаической социальной организации. В древнейшем слое как армянского, так и индийского эпоса сохраняется память о сельском, преимущественно скотоводческом обществе, важную роль в котором играл инсти-тут молодежных воинских братств. Отражением этого института в «Сасна црер» можно считать мотивы буйства юных героев с последующим изгнанием, создания ими поселения в лесной глуши, братства юных воинов, защиты ими стад и отражения вражеских нашествий, боевого бешенства, являющегося главной характеристикой всех сасунских героев, образ их неизменного, переходящего из поколения в поколение наставника и предводителя, «дядьки» Кери-Тороса, упоми-нания оргиастических пиршеств молодежного объединения, следы добрачной свободы юношей и девушек и т.п. Исполь-зование данных мотивов, очевидно, поддерживалось существованием у армян вплоть до Новейшего времени института юношеских социовозрастных объединений, что засвидетельствовано этнографией. Сравнительное изучение армянского эпоса позволяет выявить в нем прежде скрытые от нас аспекты социально-исторического содержания. Более широкое привлечение материалов армянского эпоса к изучению как индоевропейских, так и иных эпических традиций народов Кав-каза и степной Евразии послужит обогащению и развитию сравнительного эпосоведения. Ключевые слова: армянский эпос, «Махабхарата», сравнительное эпосоведение, этнографический субстрат, социо-возрастные объединения, юношеские воинские братства. The author summarizes the results of his search for parallels between the Armenian epic "Sasna cṙer" ("Daredevils of Sassoun") and the Mahābhārata. The comparative study has revealed considerable similarity in the "ethnographic substratum" of both epics, particularly that relating to the archaic social organization mirrored by the epic. The earliest layer of both the Armenian and the Indian epics retains the memory of a rural, largely pastoral society, in which an important role was played by the fraternities of young warriors. In the Armenian epic, this is indicated by recurrent motifs such as the young heroes' rampage followed by exile, the foundation of their own outpost in the backwoods, young male warriors' fraternities, their defense of herds, warding off enemy attacks, battle frenzy (a common characteristic of all the Sasun heroes), their immutable tutor and leader ("uncle") Keri Toros, allusions to orgiastic feasts, premarital freedom enjoyed by boys and girls, etc. In Armenians, these motifs were supported by the existence until the recent times of age sets, described by ethnographers. The comparative study of the Armenian epic reveals its hitherto unnoticed socio-historical aspects. Its wider use for studying other epic traditions (not only Indo-European but also those of other peoples inhabiting the Caucasus and the Eurasian steppes) will contribute to the comparative epic studies.

The history of the Church of St. Mary or literally in Armenian, the Holy Mother of God, Theotokos, the medieval and post medieval Armenian community in Famagusta, Cyprus is presented, hoping it might contribute to the work of preserving and restoring the church and its fresco cycle that miraculously survived centuries of abandonment and neglect. There are no specific records relating to the circumstances or the date of the church’s construction in Armenian sources. Latin documents, however, are quite explicit. According to a papal bull of 1311, the church’s construction had recently started.

Armenian is among the dozens of languages in which the Romance of Alexander the Great was translated. In antiquity Armenians felt at home in both the West and the East, the Greek world of the Mediterranean and the Persian Empire of the Near East; they took a special and early interest in the life and deeds of Alexander the Great. Armenian nobility fought on both sides of the battle of Gaugamela (331 B.C.). The Orontid kings of Armenia were descended from the Achaemenid line; the Artaxiad kings also claimed Persian descent, though they were allies from time to time of the Romans, while the most famous of them, Tigranes the Great, tried to bring Armenia into the Hellenistic world. the Armenian Arsacid dynasty originated when the brother of the Parthian great king of Iran came to rule as the king of Armenia. The translation of the Alexander Romance took place after nearly five centuries of Armenian Arsacid rule had ended and Armenia, already Christianized for more than a century, accepted political vassalage under the Sasanian rulers of Iran while connected to the great universal religion of the Byzantine and Latin west. This historical dimension makes the relationship between Armenia and Alexander ambiguous, for though it is clear that the Latin and Byzantine traditions allied themselves with Alexander as a champion of their culture and the Islamic world of Arabs, Persians, and Turks adopted him as a descendent of the great Achaemenid dynasty, Armenians could claim a legitimate sympathy to both the oriental and the occidental Alexander.

The Festschrift is a collection of 47 essays on subjects related to Prof. Kouymjian’s interest over the years written by colleagues, friends, and students.  Included in the selection that follows are the front cover, the titlepage, acknowledgements, Table of Contents, Preface, the editor’s Introduction, Bibliography of the honoree’s works, Tabula Gratulatoria, and back cover.

This paper is a continuation of the poster which examines some types of weapons and armors by analyzing written sources which was presented at the conference: "Nouvelles recherches sur l'Arménie ancienne / New Research on Ancient Armenia, Geneva, 8-9 June 2018"
Link to the poster where you can find illustrations to this article - https://www.academia.edu/36769320/Poster_presentation__ARMS_AND_ARMOUR_OF_BAGRATID_ARMENIAN_NOBLEMEN

The dissertation presented for the M.A. Degree discusses for the first time one of the still unpublished 11th century A.D. spiritual treatises of one of key figures and Spiritual leaders of the Armenian Church. A father, a spiritual leader, an organizer and educator that he was, he undertook a gigantic task in organizing the religious texts of the Armenian Church in his time. He went through hardships and worked diligently and education was his true ministry.

In celebration of the 500th anniversary of Armenian Printing, 1512-2012, the Bibliothèque Mazarine of the French Academy hosted a major exhibition of a selection of early printed Armenian books dating before 1800 from its own rich collection, which together with that of the Bibliothèque nationale de France have the richest holdings of early Armenian prints in France.  The exhibit was supplemented from holdings in the special collection of the Bibliothèque universitaire des langues et civilisations (BULAC), and a private Paris collection.  This, the second of two groups of descriptive notices, includes  eleven publications from sections III. Imprimeries d’Orient & V. Livres d’orientalistes.

The article examines the life of the Armenian Tiridates, who, according to Cassius Dio, caused disturbances in Armenia during the reign of Marcus Aurelius and who behaved violently towards the Roman legate Martius Verus when the latter reproached him for his conduct. Although Dio mentions this man only en passant in relation to a minor incident, the fifth-century Armenian historian Movses Khorenats'i records in his work History of the Armenians a local folklore tradition of another Tiridates, who also seems to have been a contemporary of Marcus Aurelius and whose arrogance matched that of the Tiridates mentioned by Dio.
A closer examination of the details in these two stories would seem to suggest that both Cassius Dio and Movses are talking about one and the same individual. The combined details of these two stories help us to understand the incident recorded by Cassius Dio in its proper context. It also enables us to see the incident as another example of the challenges the Roman Empire faced in its more remote frontiers. Furthermore, the folklore tradition recorded by Movses would seem to provide us with valuable clues for our understanding of the situation in Armenia on the eve of the Parthian war of Lucius Verus, as well as the causes of this conflict and possibly the identities of some of its key players.

The 17th-century manuscript M7709 (held in the Matenadaran, Yerevan, Armenia) includes an Armenian copy of the History of the City of Brass, to which an unknown scribe has added short poems about Alexander the Great. The first of three articles that together present the Alexander poems of M7709 in full, with English translation, for the first time, this article introduces the manuscript and considers the first six poems: the seduction of Olympias, and Alexander's encounter with plant-men at the edge of the world. It adds commentary on the poems' relationship to the corresponding part of the History of the City of Brass on each page, proposing textual reasons why the scribe added the poems where he did. Across the three articles, this commentary delves into textual relationships beyond the pages of M7709, linking the Armenian History of the City of Brass, Alexander Romance and other texts and traditions, to show how this manuscript is situated amid wider networks of circulating literature. As a microhistorical study, it seeks to provide illumination into the macrohistory of medieval and early modern literature in and beyond the Caucasus.

Banber Matenadarani 21 (2014), p. 63-77.
This paper (in Armenian) deals with the question of the relationship between the Armenian version of the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla and the Armenian Martyrdom of Thaddeus and Sanduxt. N. Akinean raised the hypothesis of a possible influence of the first text on the second one in an article published posthumously in Handēs Amsōreay in 1970. He did not give any commentary, but simply put some parallels of the two works in a synoptic presentation. A thorough analysis, on a new basis, was ne-cessary. A comparison between the two texts allows us to establish that a few parallels identified by Akinean are not conclusive. It is nevertheless possible to confirm many other parallels, and even add some more others, which support Akinean‘s hypothesis. We can conclude that the author of the Martyrdom of Thaddeus and Sanduxt must have known the text of the Acts of Paul and Thecla, which enjoyed a great popularity in Armenia from the fifth century onwards. The model of the Acts of Paul and Thecla is particularly significant as a pattern of holiness followed by the author of the Martyrdom of Thaddeus in the representation of the figure of Sanduxt, who, according to this apocryphal text, was one of the disciples of the apostle and the first woman converted to Christianity in Armenia. Following the same text, she also had a role as a preacher, as Thecla did in the Acts of Paul and Thecla.

The abundantly illustrated article elaborates the history of Armenia paleography from its inception to modern techniques, discussing the contribution of each individual paleographer from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. The essay represents the introduction to the vast Album of chronologically arranged examples from some 200 select manuscripts. There is a clear presentation of the evolution of the four major Armenian scripts. The work is accompanied by the detailed bibliography of the subject.

This article examines the migrations of a single loanword and loan-concept—the gharīb, or stranger—across Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Armenian speaking communities. In particular, by analyzing the literary production of seminal figures such as Judah Halevi, al-Ghazzālı̄, Jalāl al-Dı̄n Rūmı̄, Yūnus Emre, and Mkrtich‘ Naghash, it argues that the gharı̄b had utility as a referent across a dizzying array of religious and linguistic contexts. Because of the gharīb’s unique ability to be simultaneously “native” and “foreign” at the same time, it serves as a valuable heuristic for considering the highly migratory nature of cultural production within the medieval Mediterranean world.

In seventeen western sources from the 12th and 13th centuries we find the accusation that the Muslims transformed churches into stables. In several instances, the principle reason given for the First Crusade was the transformation of Holy Sepulcher into a stable. More imaginary than real, the accusation raises the question about the role of animality and purity in the thought concerning the Crusades. The negative transformation of a holy space into a space for animals is understood as a reversal of Christ's nativity, when a stable became a sacred space. Understood in its totality, the dialectics of the spatial transformation move from the animal to the sacred and vis versa Thus, if the Nativity is the model solution to the problem of animality and purity, the other serves as the model of infraction. This dialectic is manifested and reinforced in three periods: the Mythical time of the birth of God, the holiday of the Nativity, and that of that of the Crusade. The first is the order established in mythical times, while the second is the historical moment of the Crisis. As an act of purification, the Crusade requires a previous profanation. It is proposed that the dialectics of pollution and purification are also present in Muslim sources, to the extant that we can speak about a “dialogue of pollution and purification” between the two adversaries.

Dans dix-sept sources occidentales des XIIe et XIIIe s., les musulmans se voient accusés de transformer des églises en étables. Dans certains cas, la raison principale donnée à la première croisade est la transformation du Saint-Sépulcre en étable. Plus imaginaire que réelle, l’accusation suscite un questionnement sur la place de l’animalité et de la pureté dans la pensée de la croisade. La transformation négative de l’espace sacré en un espace animal est interprétée comme un renversement de la Nativité du Christ, épisode durant lequel une étable devient un lieu saint. Le schéma dialectique de transformation de l’espace, de l’animal au sacré et vice-versa, doit être appréhendé dans sa totalité : si la Nativité est un modèle de résolution du problème de l’animalité et de la pureté, la transformation de l’église en étable constitue un modèle d’infraction. Ce schéma se manifeste, et se renforce, dans trois temporalités différentes : le temps mythique de la naissance de Dieu, celui de la fête de la Nativité et celui de la croisade. L’un est l’ordre établi du temps du mythe ; le second est le renforcement rituel de cet ordre ; le troisième est la transgression de l’ordre dans la temporalité historique de la crise. La croisade, pour être un acte de purification, exige une situation de profanation. L’hypothèse est ici proposée que la dialectique de pollution et de purification se manifeste également dans les sources musulmanes, si bien qu’on peut parler d’un « dialogue de pollution et purification » entre les deux adversaires.

Even though the printing of books in Armenian began in Venice in 1511/12, just six decades after Gutenberg's invention, the hand copying of texts continued into the nineteenth century. This traditional method of creating books was carried out in
monasteries where the free labour of the monk as scribe was more economical than the
purchase of mass-produced printed books. The fear often expressed in the West that
printing would put scribes and copyists out of work was also echoed among Armenians. Nevertheless, Armenian printing spread from Venice to Rome and Amsterdam and other European centres, rapidly moving east to Constantinople, Iran, and India. The print revolution, however, did not engender the parallel development of a mechanically driven process for binding the ‘new’ books.

This essay examines the employment of eschatological prophecies by Armenian historiographers between the 7th and 10th centuries. Eschatological perceptions were quite common in the Armenian tradition, particularly when they also appeared in cultures throughout the region. Political upheavals such as the seventh-century Byzantine-Perisan wars, the Islamic invasions, and the Abbāsid revolution, as well as the approach of eschatologically marked years such as 800CE/200AH, and 1000CE, served as touchstones for speculation on the end of the world or for looking at the past through an eschatological lens. On the other hand, there is evidence that not all members of the Armenian literary elite shared these sentiments. This paper argues that the eighth-century historian Łewond, for example, attempted to de-eschatologize many of the critical historical events that precipitated eschatological tensions.

The book brings together the first international conference held in the diaspora on the Armenian epic Sasna tsrer or David of Sasun held at California State University, Fresno in 1978.  Though more that 35 years have elapsed, the papers presented by the world's foremost authorities from Europe, Canada, the United States, and Armenia are as fresh and timely as they were when given.  Many of the new ideas on epic literature present then have to some extent been taken up in more recent publications.  There is a complete synopsis of the official synthetic version compiled from the more than 100 variants by scholars in Armenian in 1939, who arbitrarily decided that year to be the 1000th anniversary of this remarkable epic that remained exclusively oral until the first transcription of a variant in 1873.  In addition, there is the first and only version of the epic recorded in the diaspora in both Armenian and in translation and a complete critical bibliography on the epic, a complete index, and an elaborate discussion of the contents of the oral variants versus the official composed canonized version.

Seite 4: Impressum Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar.

Gregorio di Narek è certamente una delle espressioni più significative e originali della cultura e della spiritualità armena e la sua fama ha travalicato meritatamente i confini dell'Armenia e la cerchia ristretta degli specialisti. Divo Barsotti definisce la sua opera uno dei documenti più alti della spiritualità monastica antica 1 e non può sfuggire quanto il maestro spirituale e teologo fiorentino sia debitore alla sensibilità narekiana.

The overview on the construction of Armenian manuscripts discusses the following topics: Du rouleau au codex, Dimensions des manuscrits, Parchemin ou papier?, Les reliures des manuscrits arméniens à inscriptions, l’Illustration, La présentation d’un évangile manuscrit enluminé, Les illustrations des évangiles, Conclusion.  Miniatures in color placed before the Conclusion illustrate the text.

In this article, we examine the relationship between Armenian dictionaries and colophons, which we present in three groups:
a. words which are known to dictionaries only from the colophons.
b. words which are known to dictionaries in one example, but the colophons give other testimonies.
c. words attested in dictionaries the older usages of which we find in the colophons of the Armenian manuscripts.
A number of new words that are not attested in Armenian dictionaries is also presented with the study of their formation structures.

«Aux prises avec le Centre du Monde. Autour du double paradoxe des Lieux saints chrétiens de Jérusalem», in:  Anne-Sophie Vivier-Muresan (éd.), Coexistence et conflits intercommunautaires en Méditerranée. L’enjeu des sanctuaires. Actes du Colloque international de Rome, février 2006, numéro spécial de la revue CHRONOS. Revue d’Histoire de l’Université de Balamand 18 (2008), p. 29-54.

Présentation diachronique du long processus de constitution du plus important haut lieu saint de la Chrétienté, le Saint Sépulcre, comme objet de culte. Le double paradoxe que nous essayons d’expliquer est l’articulation de son emplacement à l’extérieur du monde proprement dit « chrétien », avec le fait d’être, malgré cette extériorité, l’objet privilégié de toutes les rivalités des grandes confessions chrétiennes. Nous expliquons que justement cette extériorité a contribué à faire de Jérusalem l’objet des désirs et des rêves des fidèles. Les autorités musulmanes ont pratiqué l’égalité d’accès au Sépulcre de tous les chrétiens, non sans encourager par ailleurs leur rivalité. Ce double processus, ici suivi à travers ses grandes étapes historiques, a façonné le statu quo qui règne actuellement, depuis le XVIIIe siècle, dans l’église du Saint Sépulcre.

After the fall of the Sāsānian Empire, Armenians under Arab pressure asked for help from the Roman emperor. Constans II, whereupon, declared Tʿēodoros Ṙštuni as patrik and then tried to tie the Armenian Church to Constantinople. Armenians, however, rejected the attempt and formed an alliance with Arabs. Sebēos, Armenian historian and bishop noted, “All the Armenian princes made a pact with death and contracted an alliance with hell”. In this context, the purpose of this study is to indicate the choice of Tʿēodoros Ṙštuni between two poles, to emphasize the historical context of this “alliance with hell” and to examine the gains and losses of the Armenians after this pact

For a millennium or more the Armenia epic or epics known as Sasna tsrer, roughly “The Different Ones of Sassoun,” or by a second title, David of Sassoun, was passed down in oral form from generation to generation around Lake Van, especially in the area of Sassoun. In the century since its discovery it has been transformed from an indigenous, regional tale to the national epic of all Armenians. No literary Armenian source, however, from the fifth to the nineteenth century, knows of David or any of the epic’s principal characters. What follows is the opening introductory paper to the international conference organized at California State University, Fresno in 1978.  It presents the history, but also the various problems, with the Armenian epic, that has since the twentieth century has been consecrated at the national epic.  See the Preface under Books, David of Sassoun

In celebration of the 500th anniversary of Armenian Printing, 1512-2012, the Bibliothèque Mazarine of the French Academy hosted a major exhibition of a selection of early printed Armenian books dating before 1800 from its own rich collection, which together with that of the Bibliothèque nationale de France have the richest holdings of early Armenian prints in France.  The exhibit was supplemented from holdings in the special collection of the Bibliothèque universitaire des langues et civilisations (BULAC), and a private Paris collection.  This, the first of two groups of descriptive notices, included six publications from sections I. Venise & II. d’Amsterdam à Marseille.

Apokryf 1895) Marii Konopnickiejwiersz jako po-Słowie * Jednym z najbardziej ożywczych źródeł poetyckiego natchnienia jest w twórczości Marii Konopnickiej Biblia, wykorzystywana przez nią bezpośrednio lub odnajdywana u innych twórców -w dziełach literackich, malarskich, muzycznych, a także w świadectwach życia różnych osób (jak np. św. Katarzyna ze Sieny). Autorka Mojżesza i Widzenia, cyklu Z mojej Biblii oraz Psałterza dziecka i wielu innych utworów od osiągnięcia dojrzałości pisarskiej aż po kres życia czerpała z tego źródła obficie: motywy i tematy, idee i symbole, nade wszystko zaś -refleksję o człowieku jako Bożym stworzeniu, jego upadku w grzechu, nawróceniu i powołaniu do świętości. Liczne wiersze osobne (np. z tomu Italia), ich cykle (np. W Sykstynie) oraz obszerne poematy (jak Imagina) świadczą dowodnie, iż zarówno egzystencję i los jednostki, jak problemy życia zbiorowego, historię ludzkości i narodów oraz kulturę i jej wytwory poetka bardzo często ujmowała w biblijnej perspektywie, czego artystycznym wyznacznikiem była stylizacja biblijna, stosowana w całym bogactwie form i funkcjonalnie zróżnicowanym natężeniu. Choć w życiu prywatnym i obywatelsko-patriotycznym wadziła się Konopnicka z instytucją Kościoła, to sam fundament chrześcijaństwa: Biblię, to jest Księgi Starego i Nowego Testamentu -czytaną na co dzień w przekładzie ks. Jakuba Wujka 1 -przyjmowała jako wartość najwyższą i nie podlegającą krytyce, jako żywe Słowo Boże, spisane pod natchnieniem Ducha Świętego 2 . W takim też charakterze pojawia się ono w jej pisarstwie, nade wszystko w poezji. Badacze dostrzegli samo zjawisko już dawno i poświęcili mu sporo uwagi 3 ; do dziś jednak brakuje pracy, która by problem ujęła w sposób systematyczny i całościowy. Zanim taka praca powstanie, potrzebne są studia i analizy szczegółowe, odsłaniające różne aspekty * Druk: Aluzja literacka. Teoriainterpretacjekonteksty, praca zbiorowa pod red. A. Stoffa i A. Skubaczewskiej-Pniewskiej, Wyd. UMK, Toruń 2007, s. 165-180. ISBN 978-83-231-2086-5. 1 Zob. J. Nowak, Wstęp, [w:] M. Konopnicka, Listy do Ignacego Wasiłowskiego, oprac., wstępem i przypisami opatrzył J. Nowak, Warszawa 2005, s. 21. 2 W nauczaniu Kościoła prawdę tę wyraża współczesna Konopnickiej encyklika Providentissimus Deus (o studium Pisma św.) papieża Leona XIII, ogłoszona 18 listopada 1893 roku, nawiązująca m.in. do ustaleń Soboru Watykańskiego I z lat 1869-1870. 3 J. Dickstein-Wieleżyńska, Maria Konopnicka. Dzieje natchnień i myśli, Warszawa 1927, passim; M. Grzędzielska, Poezja religijna późnego romantyzmu i poromantyczna, [w:] Polska liryka religijna, red. S. Sawicki, P. Nowaczyński, Lublin 1983, s. 263-300; B. Burdziej, Marii Konopnickiej "Modlitwy" po pogromie warszawskim 1881 roku, [w:] Maria Konopnicka. Nowe studia i szkice, pod red. J. Z. Białka i T.