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Document Details : Title: Some Further Observations on Colophons in Verse Subtitle: The Earliest Two Examples Author(s): VAN LINT, Theo Maarten Journal: Revue des Études Arméniennes Volume: 39 Date: 2020 Pages: 169-186 DOI: 10.2143/REA.39.0.3288970 Abstract : Twenty-Two out of the twenty-seven poems ascribed to Kostandin of Erznkay (c.1250-c.1320) are preserved in a near-contemporary manuscript, Venice Mekhitarist Library MS no 103 (V103). Copied in Tabriz in 1336 by Amir P‘olin, a friend of Kostandin’s and a fellow member of the Erznkay Brotherhood for which Yovhannēs Erznkac‘i had in 1280 written the statutes, V103 also contains a sermon by Yovhannēs, treating the same themes as Kostandin’s poetry. The manuscript with Kostandin’ poems thus forms a vademecum for a spiritual Christian life. Five more poems are ascribed to Kostandin, four of which are here interpreted as mystical love poems. A brief introduction describes the poetry’s historical context and addresses Kostandin’s poetic summary of the Biblical story. Then four main themes are treated: nature poems, the theme of microcosm and macrocosm, didactic poems regarding the spiritual life, and finally, absent from V103, ‘mystical wine’, addressing Kostandin’s love poems. Love is the foundation of God’s creation and of his relationship with human beings, and underpins Kostandin’s work and worldview: these poems, set in a meǰlis can be interpreted as a celebration of the mass. |
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