Senior seminar organized by Prof.Nazenie Garibian (“Matenadaran” Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, Yerevan, Armenia), visiting professor at MemoryLab.
The monumental cartographic manuscript Tabula Chorographica Armenica (BUB, rot. 24) is considered one of the most significant discoveries made by the University Library of Bologna in recent decades. Commissioned in Constantinople by Luigi Ferdinando Marsili in 1691 and created by the scholar Eremia Çelepi Keomurtchian, the map is an extraordinary document in many respects. It is neither a true geographical or topographical map, nor does it represent Armenia or other countries as historical-political entities; rather, it is a unique work, a compendium of crystallized sacred traditions and transculturally shared cultural heritage.
Through more than 800 watercolor images and symbols, accompanied by explanatory captions, the Tabula represents almost all the religious centers, monasteries, holy places, and places of worship belonging to the Armenian Church or venerated by Armenians and neighboring ethnic groups in the region.
Professor Nazenie Garibian will hold four seminars, in which she will present the Tabula as a case study of a cartographic support used to record the collective memory of historical, religious, and cultural heritage. The meetings will take place over five weeks, between mid-April and the end of May. Through an interdisciplinary approach and a rich iconographic apparatus, the professor will analyze the Tabula from different perspectives, in relation to the physical and symbolic “territories of memory” collected in the map and its iconography.
1. The Tabula Chorographica Armenica as a thesaurus of historical and cultural memory
April 16th, 2025, 3:30–5:30 p.m. – Aula Magna, Bologna University Library, Via Zamboni 35
2. Designing a mental statehood: the creation of the Tabula Chorographica Armenica
May 9th, 2025, 3:30–5:30 p.m. – Gambi Hall, Piazza San Giovanni in Monte, 2
3–4. Between real and ideal representations: the iconography and archaeological data of the Tabula Chorographica Armenica
Session I: May 22nd, 2025, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. – Gambi Hall, Piazza San Giovanni in Monte, 2
Session II: May 29th, 2025, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. – Gambi Hall, Piazza San Giovanni in Monte, 2