This substantial volume combines the proceedings of two conferences, one held in June 2007 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and entitled ‘After the Apocalypse: the Nachleben of Apocalyptic Literature in the Armenian Tradition’, and the second convened at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in October 2008, ‘The Armenian Apocalyptic Tradition: a Comparative Perspective’. It comprises thirty essays, divided chronologically into two parts, ‘Until the Tenth Century’ and ‘Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries’, and then further arranged on the basis of topic. Each part is prefaced by a short introductory essay, composed by La Porta and Bardakjian respectively. La Porta offers a brief outline of the development of apocalyptic literature in the Armenian literary tradition down to the era of the Crusades, before introducing the eighteen articles in part i, assembled in five sections; Bardakjian extends the outline to the early modern period before commenting on the twelve articles gathered into three sections in part ii. Contributions from each conference are to be found in both parts. The bipartite structure of the volume is therefore unrelated to the underlying conferences and is somewhat contrived, with several essays in part i extending far beyond the chronological divide and essays in part ii falling across its advertised parameters.

The publication of this volume is timely, both for Armenian and non-Armenian scholars. Improbable though it may seem, Hovhannisyan's history of Armenian ideology and self-representation, published in Armenian in 1957, remains the single most important introduction to medieval Armenian apocalyptic literature despite being inaccessible to many. Moreover, while there have been studies of individual texts, both those inherited or imported from neighbouring cultures which came to be translated and preserved in Armenian – including 7 Dan and 4 Ezra – and those composed in Armenian, little comparative research has been conducted across the corpus of Armenian apocalyptic writings and representations as a whole, whether in terms of the literary forms employed, the range of motifs or the social contexts in which the individual works were generated and reimagined. There has been even less progress in exploring the relationship between Armenian apocalyptic literature and medieval Christian apocalyptic thought – either with neighbouring traditions in the eastern Mediterranean or with traditions further afield in western Europe – or with medieval Jewish or Islamic apocalyptic literature. That no single Armenian apocalyptic text crossed languages and cultures in the manner of the Syriac Apocalypse of Ps. Methodius may have contributed to the historic isolation of the Armenian tradition. The limited influence of the Revelation of John within the Armenian tradition – reflecting a long-standing uncertainty over its canonical status until Nersēs of Lambron completed a new translation and commentary at the end of the twelfth century – may also have had a part to play in its relative marginalisation.

The collection responds to these challenges both within the tradition and in cross-cultural comparison and has much to recommend it. It contains a wide range of papers which explore different aspects of the Armenian apocalyptic tradition, from its Jewish and Iranian roots (Stone, Reed and Russell) through to the dynamic relationship between illustrations accompanying the Revelation of John in western printed Bibles and manuscript illuminations in seventeenth-century Armenian Bibles (Merian). Several essays (including those by Cowe, DiTommaso, Thomson, Topchyan and La Porta) reflect on individual works and their reception. Four papers (Thomson, La Porta, Muradyan and Aleksidze) focus on the meaning and symbolism of the Visions of Grigor Lusaworic’ and Sahak of Part‘ew, both at the time of their composition in the fifth century and subsequently, with Aleksidze commenting on their transmission and dissemination in medieval Georgian tradition. Pogossian, on the other hand, undertakes a different form of comparative analysis within the Armenian tradition, scrutinising a cluster of eschatological texts composed in the turbulent conditions of the eleventh and twelfth centuries which predicted the revival of Armenian kingship and the inauguration of the End. Indeed the Sermo de Antichristo indicated that the future would involve a Roman emperor and an Armenian king acting in concert, developing a long-standing tradition that Constantine i and King Trdat had met one another in the formative era. Rosenstiehl traces Armenian expressions of three eschatological motifs related to the AntiChrist while Shoemaker reflects on the diminution of apocalyptic traditions in Armenian narratives of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. Four essays (van Lint, Maranci, Vardanyan and Merian) consider non-literary representations of the End – with a particular focus on the Throne Vision of Ezekiel – and all four studies are situated in broader cross-cultural contexts. By contrast the remaining essays comprise specific studies (Rapp, Stoyanov, Bartal and Piovanelli) or more general surveys (Boccaccini, Pettipiece, Witakowski and Miltenova) of non-Armenian antique and medieval apocalyptic traditions, with the latter group addressing Jewish, Manichaean, Syriac and Bulgarian material. While these pieces afford all manner of insights in their respective fields, they also attest to some of the methodological and linguistic challenges presented by comparative analysis. It is left to the reader to discern the connections and discrepancies between Armenian apocalyptica and these other traditions; only Hultgård's important contribution addresses these issues directly.

The volume is enhanced by DiTommaso's masterly concluding essay, in which he reflects on taxonomic and conceptual challenges within the field of apocalypticism as a whole before proposing five features of the medieval apocalyptic tradition. DiTommaso offers an impressive outline of the Armenian apocalyptic tradition as it is currently configured – even today our knowledge remains very incomplete – before arguing for the specific role of medieval apocalypticism in the formation and development of ethno-national identities. As a way of thinking about the function of apocalyptic writings, this shows great potential.

This volume represents a very significant advance in the study of the Armenian apocalyptic tradition. Aside from giving an impression of the wealth of material available, it also presents new ways of approaching the texts, individually and collectively. At the same time, one can expect that this collection will promote a wider awareness of the profile of the Armenian apocalyptic tradition and its potential for future collaborative cross-cultural research.