Liturgical manuscript (Sharaknots), written by the copyist Awetis
in Khizan in the province Van in the year 1647 (1096 according to
the Armenian calendar). It contains 11 large miniatures and 28
miniatures in the margins, executed and signed by the painter
Yovanes Gharietsi. He was one of the most fascinating artists of
the late School of Vaspurakan. The manuscript is part of certain
hymnals, created for private customers in the region of Lake Van
and characterized by bright colors and interlace ornamentation. The
manuscript features the Armenian Khaz-notation. The text contains
the collection of hymns in use in the Armenian Church, in the same
order as in a Hymnarium printed as a first edition in Amsterdam in
the year 1664. Three more hymnals of this type, also the result of
the collaboration of these two artists, are known: two in Jerusalem
and one in Jerewan. Attached in the beginning and at the end are
two sheets of parchment containing a part of the Proprium de
Sanctis from a Latin breviary from the 13th/14th century.
