Mikael Chamichian

Mikael Chamichian. Historian and author of the History of Armenians. One of the monumental works published by the Congregation of the Mekhitarists in Venice. The first of the three volume work was published in 1784 and the last volume in 1788. It is generally regarded as the birth of modern historiography for the Armenians. Generations of Scholars, clergymen, readers, and writers have learned the history of their people from this book, finding it an inexhaustible of information.

Chamchian's History made use of the archival documents and manuscripts that were available at the time. Chamchian's work stood out from previous works on Armenian history in that it was a critical history. Critical in the sense that the whole range of the available documents he used had undergone a scrutinizing examination to determine their internal validity and conformity with other documents of Armenian foreign origin.

The English translation of the book was published in Calcutta in 1827, with the title History of the Armenians; From B.C. 2247 to the Year of Christ 1780, or 1297 of the Armenian Era, and was republished in New York in 1990.