Prof. Dickran Kouymjian Honored Twice in Paris

STAFF REPORT

Last spring Prof. Dickran Kouymjian, Haig & Isabel Berberian Professor of Armenian Studies, Emeritus, was informed that the Scientific Council of the Academy of the Ambrosiana Library of Milan had nominated him to become a member. On November 11, 2013, at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Dr. Kouymjian was officially confirmed a member of the Academy by the President, Archbishop Franco Buzzi, upon the recommendation of the Grand Chancellor of the Accademia Ambrosiana, the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Angelo Scola.

The Biblioteca Ambrosiana was found just after 1600 by Cardinal Federico Borromeo (1564-1631), Archbishop of Milan, as a public library (the second in Europe after the Bodleian Library in Oxford) and research center. At his death his vast collection of European and Oriental manuscripts and a library of more than 30,000 books, as well as his vast art collection, was given to the institution named after Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan.

Over the centuries, as the library and art museum grew, it became one of the most prestigious centers of research and learning in the arts and humanities in Italy and Europe.

The Academy is divided into seven sections or classes, most of them devoted to Italian art and classical studies, while two are reserved for Near Eastern and Far Eastern Studies.

Dr. Kouymjian was elected to the Near Eastern section, the second American member, and the first to be appointed to its Armenian Studies section. Out of the 250 current members of the Academy, there are now about a dozen Americans. Members are chosen by the Council of scholars of each section/class and nominated by the President of the Academy, currently Archbishop Franco Buzzi.

Members of the Academy are personally appointed by the Great Chancellor and chosen among scholars of recognized scientific and cultural value within each Class and nominated by the Directing Council on the basis of recommendations provided by the Assembly of the Academics.

The members of the Academy are appointed as life members. For his inaugural address, Prof. Kouymjian spoken on “Some Iconographical Questions about the Christ Cycle in Armenian Manuscripts and Printed Books,” which will be published in the Journal of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana later this year.

A month earlier, on October 12, 2013, at a private dinner-reception held at the Caviar Petrossian Restaurant in Paris, Dr. Kouymjian received the distinguished Medal of Gratitude of the Republic of Artsakh from the President of Artsakh-Karabagh, Bako Sahakyan.

The dinner was arranged by the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Karabagh in Paris, Hovhannes Gevorgyan, and the executive committee of the Friends of Karabagh in France.

The honor was bestowed for the bi-lingual book that Prof. Kouymjian co-edited with Dr. Claude Mutafian (also honored), Artsakh-Karabagh: Garden of Armenian Arts and Traditions Jardin des arts et des traditions arméniens, Paris: Somogy Art Publishers, 2011.