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REFINE
Browse All : Historical of Armenia
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Author
Babessian, Hovhannes K.
Note
"A very rare tableau that acts a visual ‘encyclopaedia’ of Armenia, anchored by a large map of Soviet Armenia framed by entertaining vignettes and text showcasing the ancient and exceptionally rich history and culture of the Armenian people; an original work by the Armenian exile cartographer and writer Hovhannes K. Babessian, published in Paris in the early 1930s.
This very rare, separately published, and artistically virtuous work was created by the Armenian exile writer and cartographer Hovhannes K. Babessian as a magnificent celebration of Armenian history and culture. The centre of the composition is a large map of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (Armenian SSR), a country that while part of Stalin’s USSR, was then the only homeland of the Armenian people. Surrounding the map is an amazing pageant of charts, diagrams, pictorial vignettes and maps, as well as lengthy text panels, all written in Armenian text, that detail seemingly every aspect of 4,000 years of Armenian history, culture and demographics, as well as the geography and flora and fauna of the region. While we have encountered a few ‘patriotic’
Armenian maps over the years, this work is by far and away that most visually and intellectually impressive.
Babessian’s celebration of Armenian culture and history would have been much appreciated by Armenians in Paris, then the most important Armenian exile community in the world, especially as the Armenian people were then enduring very challenging times. Over 1.5 million Armenians had been killed at hands of the Ottomans during the Armenian Genocide (1914-23), while the short-lived First Republic of Armenia (1918-20), the first independent Armenian state in centuries, was crushed by the Red Army. While the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (Armenian SSR) was created in December 1920, as of late, life there was tough under the heavy hand of Stalin’s regime. While the hundreds of thousands of Armenian exiles around the work knew that they would likely never live to see their homeland again, many would achieve great personal success building new lives in faraway lands. The former Armenian SSR would gain its independence in 1991, as the Republic of Armenia, giving a true homeland and new hope to the Armenian people.
The map is noted as having been “drawn and engraved” by Hovhannes K. Babessian. Babessian was an Armenian exile author and cartographer, who during the 1920s and ‘30s was based in Choisyle-Roi, near Paris, but later moved to Los Angeles. He was a friend of the worldrenowned art collector and oil baron Calouste Gulbenkian. In addition to the present map, Babessian published an Armenian work, Achkharhakroutioun Hayasdan (Paris, 1933) and the Hayatlas = Atlas of Historical Armenia (Los Angeles, 1954).
A Note on Rarity The present map is very rare; we can trace only a single institutional example at the University of Leiden Library.
References: Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden: COLLBN 010-14-038 / OCLC: 71473548." (Alex Johnson)
Author
[Avakian, Barseghyan, L., Kalantaryan, A.]
Note
Promotional guide and pictorial map, illustrations and text, on sheet 60x82, folded into 41x32. promoting the Cultural and Historical Monuments in Soviet Armenia. Shows district boundaries, place names. Includes vignettes of monuments on bottom panel and illustration of historical buildings with key to the site and text. On verso: Includes text and views of monuments and historical buildings.
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