BELMONT, Mass. — On Dec. 18, 2025, Dr. Christina Maranci, the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University, will present a special illustrated lecture as part of NAASR’s Christmas Open House at the NAASR Vartan Gregorian Building, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, Mass.
Maranci’s talk bears the intriguing title “A Curious Connection: Worcestershire Sauce, Yeghishē T‘adēvosyan and an Unpublished Armenian Hymnal [sharaknots‘] at Harvard.” Her presentation will begin at 7:00 p.m. Eastern / 4:00 p.m. Pacific and will be given in-person at NAASR and streamed live on Zoom and on NAASR’s YouTube channel. To register via Zoom, click here: https://bit.ly/48ldizp.
Light refreshments will be offered prior to the program. There will be a one-day-only 20% discount for in-store and online sales of all items in the NAASR bookstore. All are welcome to attend both the open house and the lecture.
What connects Lea and Perrin’s famous condiment, the great modern painter Yeghishē T‘adēvosyan and a 14th-century Armenian manuscript? This lecture will address the question, debuting a new acquisition at Harvard’s Houghton Library of an Armenian book of hymns, or sharaknots‘. The manuscript bears several full-page images, including a full-page portrait of its remarkable patron, Manuēl, the Bishop of Bjni, whose long colophon reveals an expansive network of family, friends and fellow churchmen. The text closes with an acrostic diagram indicating the admiration of his scribe, Yovhannēs.
This talk will also present research-in-progress concerning the manuscript’s movement from Sanahin to Germany, England and finally to the United States. Known previously only through the indirect report of Garegin Hovsep‘yan, and thought to be lost to scholars by 1921-1922, the manuscript is presented here for the first time to the public.
Christina Maranci is the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University, appointed in both the Departments of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and the History of Art and Architecture. She is the author of four books and over 100 articles and essays on medieval Armenian art and architecture, including most recently, The Art of Armenia (Oxford, 2018). Her 2015 monograph, Vigilant Powers: Three Churches of Early Medieval Armenia (Brepols, 2015) won the Karen Gould Prize for Art History from the Medieval Academy of America, as well as the Sona Aronian Prize for best Armenian Studies monograph from the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR). She is co-founder of East of Byzantium, a workshop and lecture series designed to support doctoral students working on the Christian East.
Admission is free and all are welcome. The NAASR Center is located opposite the First Armenian Church and next to the U.S. Post Office. Parking is available around the building and in adjacent areas.
For more information about the open house and programs, please e-mail hq@naasr.org.
