The earliest mention of a manuscript repository in Armenia was recorded in the writings of the fifth century historian Ghazar Parpetsi , who noted the existence of such a repository at the Etchmiadzin catholicosate in Vagharshapat , where Greek and Armenian language texts were kept . Sources remain silent on the fate of the Etchmiadzin '' matenadaran '' until the 15th century , when the catholicosate returned from Sis in Cilicia . Manuscript repositories existed at major monasteries in medieval Armenia , such as at Haghpat ( Haghpat matenadaran ) , Sanahin , Saghmosavank , Tatev , Geghard , Kecharis , Hromkla , and Bardzraberd . In some cases , monastic complexes have separate structures as manuscript repositories . Sometimes manuscripts would be transferred to caves to avoid destruction by foreign invaders . Thousands of manuscripts in Armenia were destroyed over the course of the tenth to fifteenth centuries during the Turkic and Mongol invasions . According to the medieval Armenian historian Stepanos Orbelian , the Seljuk Turks were responsible for the burning of over 10,000 Armenian manuscripts in Baghaberd in 1170 . As a result of Armenia being a constant battleground between two major powers , the Matenadaran in Etchmiadzin was pillaged several times , the last of which took place in 1804 , during the Russo-Persian War . Eastern Armenia 's annexation by the Russian Empire in the early 19th century provided a more stable climate for the preservation of the remaining manuscripts . Whereas in 1828 the curators of the Matenadaran catalogued a collection of only 1,809 manuscripts , in 1863 the collection had increased to 2,340 manuscripts , and in 1892 to 3,338 manuscripts . Prior to World War I , in 1914 , the collected had reached 4,660 manuscripts . The collection was sent to Moscow for safekeeping since Etchmiadzin was close to the war zone . Thousands of Armenian manuscripts were destroyed during the genocide in the Ottoman Empire
genocide
Armenian Genocide
Matenadaran