A book about church services. There are many such books, but this one is unique for the size.

According to scholar Haig Utidjian, “Yes, this is another Typicon or Tōnac’oyc’ – specifying the order of service on a daily basis – indicating hymns, scriptural readings and various special procedures.”

According to scholar Sebouh Aslanian, “Indeed, this is a calendar of feast holidays for the church. If I’m not mistaken, it used to be compiled and published by the mkhitarist father Hakopos Chamchean (Chamchian), the brother of the celebrated historian.

The publication of works like this served as a lightning rod for inter-confessional struggles between the Holy See of Ejmiatsin and the mkhitarist congregation in Venice. I bought a mint-condition copy from a seller in Istanbul this past spring and was surprised by its palm size dimension, a telltale sign of the importance of mobility in an age where more and more individuals were “on the move.”