of over 3,000 complete volumes and about 2,000 fragments. San Lazzaro is usually ranked as the third largest collection of Armenian manuscripts in the world after the Matenadaran in Yerevan, Armenia and the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The manuscript collection is kept in the rotunda-shaped tower, called the Manuscript Room (manuscript repository). Its construction was funded by Cairo-based Armenian antiques dealer Boghos Ispenian and was designed by his son Andon Ispenian. It was inaugurated in 1970 in attendance of Catholicos Vasken I. The earliest manuscripts preserved at the repository date to the eighth century. Among its notable manuscripts are the 9th century Gospel of Queen Mlke (Մլքե թագուհու Ավետարան), the early 11th century Adrianopolis Gospel; the Life of Alexander the Great, an Armenian translation of a 5th-century Greek version by Pseudo-Callistene; the Gospels of Gladzor (dated 1307). In 1976–79 some 300 manuscripts were donated by Harutiun Kurdian, for which new display cases were added. It holds one of the ten extant copies of Urbatagirk, the first-ever Armenian book printed by Hakob Meghapart in Venice in 1512. Furthermore, 44 Armenian prayer scrolls (hmayil) are preserved at the repository. Armenian museum The Armenian museum was designed by Venetian architect Giovanni Rossi and completed in 1867. Seriously damaged by a 1975 fire, it was restored in its present from by Manouk Manoukian. It formerly served as the library of Armenian manuscripts and publications. The museum now houses items related to Armenian history and art, inducing helmets and bronze belts from the Urartian period; the sword of Leo V, the last Armenian King of Cilicia, forged in Sis in 1366; Armenian ceramics from Kütahya; coins, stamps and a passport issued by the 1918–20 First Republic of Armenia. Numerous Armenian religious objects of art from the 16th to 18th centuries are on display. A bas-relief in agate from the medieval Armenian capital of Ani and a curtain formerly hang at the monastery of Lim Island on Lake Van are also on display, along with several paintings by Russian-Armenian marine artist Ivan Aivazovsky, including depictions of Mount Ararat and Niagara Falls. His Biblical creation-themed painting Chaos (1841) was donated to the congregation by Pope Leo XIII in 1901. The death mask of Komitas, the musicologist who established the Armenian national school of music, is also on display in the museum. Also on display is one of the most ancient swords ever found, originating from Anatolia and