Syrian-Armenian businessman and philanthropist Gabriel Chemperjian has donated a manuscript written in 1491 to the Matenadaran in memory of his wife, Anzhel Chemperjian, and it has fixed the location of an Armenian village that scholarship had never been able to place.

A delegation from the Mesrop Mashtots Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts headed by Director Ara Khzmalyan found the manuscript during a visit to Vienna.

The manuscript is a Sharaknots, a book of Armenian church hymns, handwritten with khazes, the Armenian system of musical notation. A priest named Hovhannes produced it in the village of Am in Baghesh province, known in Turkish as Bitlis, in Western Armenia.

Until now the village of Am had appeared in manuscript sources exactly once, with no indication of where it was. The principal colophon of this manuscript identifies its location precisely, placing it in Baghesh.

Hovhannes made a Gospel in the same village 6 years later, in 1497, and that manuscript is also preserved at the Matenadaran. The newly donated book is the earliest known work he created in Am, and the only one in which he records where the village stood.

Khazes have never been fully deciphered. Komitas devoted years to the problem and it remains open, which leaves manuscripts like this one carrying music no one can yet read.

The Matenadaran thanked Chemperjian for “this valuable donation and for his contribution to the enrichment of the manuscript heritage.”

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