CIAMCIAN, MICHELE. - Armenian Mekhitarist monk of Venice, born in Constantinople in 1738, died there in 1823. An eminent figure of a learned orientalist, apostle of the union of the Armenians with the Church of Rome during his successive residences in Constantinople, Aleppo, Basra, and Transylvania. He spent a large part of his life at S. Lazzaro in Venice, among Armenian books and manuscripts.
He refuted the errors of Giacomo Nalian, dissident Armenian patriarch of Constantinople, in his powerful apologetic work, which he called Scudo dell'ortodossia, in 4 large volumes. Worthy of great renown is his Commentario ai Salmi, in 10 vols., composed through direct study of the Hebrew text. His masterpiece, however, is the Storia armena, a bold undertaking for its time, in 3 quarto volumes, based on direct study of Oriental sources, and still today the most complete and systematic Armenian history. An abridged English translation of this work in Armenian was made (M. Chamichian, History of Armenia, 2 vols., Calcutta 1827).
