A Book of Psalms with 16 large pictures and 27 illustrations. The personal nature of the pictures and the lack of a named patron indicate that the artist made the manuscript for himself. When it was exhibited at the Morgan Library in 1994, it was suggested that the picture of a monk at the beginning of Psalm 55 is a self portrait.

Written in Karin Saladzor in the village of T’ewanch near Erzerum, where Arak’el of Gegham lived from 1578 to 1602. Erzurum (Armenian: Կարին, romanized: Karin; Kurdish: Erzîrom) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. The city was originally known in Armenian as Karno K’aghak’ (Armenian: Կարնոյ քաղաք), meaning city of Karin, to distinguish it from the district of Karin (Կարին). It is presumed its name was derived from a local princely family, the Kamsarakans, the Armenian off-shoot of the Iranian Kārin Pahlav family, who lent their name to the locale that eventually became the city. The 40,000-strong Armenian population was deported from the city and killed en masse during the 1915 Armenian genocide. Their cultural institutions, including churches, clubs, and schools, were looted, destroyed, or otherwise left derelict.