Armenian Printing in Amsterdam and the First Bible

Aside from becoming a major trading centre, Amsterdam replaced Italian cities as one of the leading places for printing during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. After several Armenian printing houses had been established in Italy and France, the idea to start printing in Amsterdam arose. Besides the newest technological developments, the Netherlands offered more freedom for the printing of ‘foreign’ ecclesiastical materials than Italy.

In 1656, Mattheos Tsaretsi, a clerical representative, was sent to Europe to print the first Bible in Armenian. Upon arriving in Amsterdam, he commissioned 170 block punches and 240 matrices for Armenian letters from the renowned cutter Christoffel van Dyck. However, Tsaretsi died several years later and his work was continued by the merchant Avetis Yerevantsi and his brother Voskan, a clergyman.

In 1666, after printing several smaller books, Voskan Yerevantsi began printing the first Armenian-language Bible. The printing was finalised on October 13, 1668. The text was based on a 1295 handwritten Bible for Armenian King Hetum II of Cilicia. The first edition contained approximately 1,470 pages and 159 images. Many sections of the book were illustrated with Biblical scenes and parts of the text were printed in decorative letters shaped like birds, rabbits, and other animals.

Due to financial difficulties, the printing house operated intermittently until 1718. Most materials published by the Armenian printing house in Amsterdam, including the Bible, were exported to Turkey and Iran, thus strengthening the transnational connections among the dispersed Armenian community. The establishment of the Armenian printing house in Amsterdam, culminating in the printing of the first Bible in Armenian, laid a crucial foundation for the future of Armenian printing, making Amsterdam a unique and significant place in the history of Armenian church literature.