MICHELE CIAMCIAN. — Armenian Mekhitarist monk of Venice, born in Constantinople in 1738, died there in 1823. A distinguished figure as an Oriental scholar and apostle of the union of Armenians with the Roman Church, he carried out this mission in his successive residences at Constantinople, Aleppo, Bassora, and Transylvania. He spent much of his life at S. Lazzaro in Venice, surrounded by Armenian books and manuscripts.
He refuted the errors of Giacomo Nalian, the dissident Armenian patriarch of Constantinople, in his weighty apologetic work, which he entitled *Scudo dell'ortodossia* [Shield of Orthodoxy], in four large volumes. Notable is his *Commentary on the Psalms*, in ten volumes, based on direct study of the Hebrew text. His masterpiece, however, is the *Armenian History*, an ambitious undertaking for his time, in three quarto volumes, compiled from direct study of Eastern sources, and still today the most complete and systematic history of Armenia. An abbreviated English translation of this work exists (M. Chamichian, *History of Armenia*, 2 vols., Calcutta 1827).
Michele Ciamcian — Portrait.
Ciamcian also left a number of ascetical and devotional works: *L'altare dell'incenso* [The Altar of Incense], *Weekly Spiritual Exercises*, *Homilies for the Feasts of the Virgin*, etc., all written in classical Armenian. A *Journey to Persia*, *Meditations*, and a *Latin-Armenian Dictionary* remain unpublished.