Workshop dedicated to Istanbul’s Armenian printers opens in Yerevan

A two-day workshop titled Istanbul’s Armenian printers opened at the Matenadaran on August 7, 2026. The event offers a new historical perspective on the pivotal contributions of Armenian printers, type-makers, and craftspeople in Istanbul to the development of Ottoman print culture from the late eighteenth century onwards.

The workshop’s partners are Matenadaran – the Mesrop Mashtots Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and the ISType platform.

 

 

“By combining technological and archival approaches, our speakers highlight the enduring legacy of Istanbul’s Armenian printers in shaping typographic and visual traditions not only in the Ottoman Empire but also far beyond its borders, from South Asia to Europe,” said workshop organizer and art historian Erin Piñon.

 

 

The workshop has brought together researchers from universities and academic centers around the world. Presentations in the first session focused on the work of Armenian printers Bogos Arabian, Ohannes Muhendisyan, and other Armenian type designers in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire. Speakers noted that their innovations in punchcutting, metal type production, and printing technologies largely shaped the visual identity of Arabic, Armenian, Persian, Turkish, and South Asian languages and laid important foundations for modern mechanical typesetting.

 

 

In the second part of the workshop, the speakers presented 19th-century Armenian illustrated publications published in Istanbul, exploring the interplay of movable type, engraving, and lithography, as well as drawing special attention to the restoration of the neglected creative heritage of the Istanbul-Armenian miniaturist and illustrator Stepan Agayian.

 

 

On August 8, a special exhibition showcased rare multilingual publications produced by 19th-century printing houses in Istanbul, bringing together publications from the Matenadaran collections, public libraries in Yerevan, and private collections.

 

 

“This is the largest exhibition to date dedicated to the work of Bogos Arabian and Ohannes Muhendisyan. It featured Armenian, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish publications that have never been shown together before,” Erin Piñon noted.