Erkat’agir

The Armenian alphabet was created by the monk Mesrop Maschots in the early 5th century. Composed of 36 letters, it was used to translate the Bible, the Gospels and religious collections. Erkat'agir, which means "iron-forged letters", is the original writing, in "capitals", hence the size of the manuscripts. The first Bibles were written on parchment in several heavy and costly volumes that were difficult to transport. Hence the appearance around the 12th century of the "bolorgir” lower case letter.