On June 1, Byblos Bank Armenia, in the face of Chief Executive Officer Hayk Stepanyan, donated the Dinner Book («Ճաշոց») of the Armenian Apostolic Church published in 1872 to the National Library of Armenia․
The event was dedicated to International Children’s Day, as Byblos Bank Armenia acquired the book from the City of Smile Foundation in return for a donation to a charity dinner in December 2021 which was entirely aimed at treating children fighting cancer.
“Projects that support the treatment of children are always included within our Corporate Social Responsibility framework. Today we dedicate this book to the National Library of Armenia to continue our activities aimed at supporting children,” said Hayk Stepanyan, Chief Executive Officer of the Bank.
The 782-page book “Dinner Book of the Armenian Church” («Ճաշոց Գիրք Հայաստանյաց Եկեղեցոց») belonged to the famous armenologist, philologist, linguist, Doctor of Philology Yervand Ter-Minasyan. His granddaughter, musician violinist Sona Azaryan, a member of the foundation’s board of trustees, provided the book to the foundation for the charity dinner.
In her turn, the director of the National Library of Armenia Anna Chulyan spoke about the importance of books for the library, assuring that it will find its worthy place in the collections of the Library’s Untouchable Literature Department.
The book is called «Chashoc» (trans.: a dinner book) because it was intended mainly for testament reading during dinner. This is the second edition of the book. The book was first published in 1686 in Venice and the second time in 1872 in Etchmiadzin.
A unique value to this book donated to National Library is added due to the personal stamp placed by Yervand Ter-Minasyan himself.