a complete dictionary. Its expanded and improved edition, Նոր Բառգիրք Հայկազեան Լեզուի, Nor baṛgirkʻ haykazean lezui (New Dictionary of the Armenian Language, 1836–37), is considered a monumental achievement and remains unsurpassed. Mikayel Chamchian published the first modern history of Armenia in three volumes (1781–86). Ronald Grigor Suny argues that these publications laid the foundations for the emergence of secular Armenian nationalism. Beginning in 1800 a periodical journal has been published at the island. Bazmavep, a literary, historical and scientific journal, was established in 1843 and continues to be published to this day. Role in Armenian history San Lazzaro has a great historical significance to Armenians and has been described as a "little Armenia." The New York Times wrote in 1919: "The island of San Lazzaro, near Venice, has been for over two centuries an Armenian oasis transplanted in the Venetian lagoons." It is one of the richest Armenian enclaves, and, according to sociologist Anny Bakalian, one of the best-known Armenian sites in the world, along with the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. William Dean Howells noted in 1866 that "As a seat of learning, San Lazzaro is famed throughout the Armenian world." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church calls the convent of San Lazzaro and the order of the Mechitarists "especially remarkable" of the religious orders based in Venice. American Protestant missionary Eli Smith noted in 1833 that the convent of San Lazzaro not only did not pursue the "denationalizing system of many of the Romish missions among the oriental churches," but also has done "more than all other Armenians together, to cultivate and enrich the literature of the nation." Travel writer Louisa Stuart Costello called the Armenian convent of San Lazzaro "a respectable pile, above the encircling waters, an enduring monument of successful perseverance in a good cause." Cultural awakening According to Robert H. Hewsen for nearly a century—until the establishment of the Lazarev Institute in Moscow in 1815—the monastery of San Lazzaro was the only center of intensive Armenian cultural activity that held the heritage of the Armenian people. During the 18th century, the rediscovery of classical Armenian literature and the creation of an Armenian vernacular by the Mechitarists of San Lazzaro was a key factor in the "Armenian Renaissance." Italian scholar Matteo Miele compared the work of the Mekhitarists carried out in the island to the work of the humanists, painters and sculptors of the