Catalogue of the Armenian Library in Elisabethopolis

In Transylvania, in the erstwhile free royal city of Elisabethopolis, a library can be found in the local Armenian Church, containing some 2000 old prints. The library is, in effect, a legacy that incorporates the books formerly belonging to the city's Armenian ministers and local intelligentsia. Due to its corpus of books in Armenian language, the Armenian library of Elisabethopolis is not only a uniquely characteristic treasure of the Carpathian Basin but also a gem of Armenian culture worldwide.
Namely, the significance of the library goes way beyond its valuable early print stock - it belongs among the few book collections that can provide a substantial basis for the partial reconstruction of the culture of the Armenians in 17th-to-19th-century Europe. Although a number of historic Armenian libraries are known outside Armenia, the catalogue of the Armenian library of Elisabethopolis is the first containing data about the Armenian settlements in Europe.