SOME NOTES ON CONSTANT OF JULFA, AN AUTHOR OF TRADE MANUALS

Abstract

The essay aims to shed light on the biography of Constant of Julfa, offering an expla-
nation for his career as an author of trade manuals. The traditional view of Constant’s life has
been limited to the colophons of Armenian manuscripts, which depicted him as a schoolmaster
between 1685 and 1699. Relying on the documents preserved in New Julfa’s All Savior’s Mo-
nastery and Venetian State Archives, the paper shows that Constant was involved in comme-
rcial operations in Smyrna in the 1660s. What should be concluded from Constant’s comme-
rcial career is that he wrote his trade manuals on the basis of first-hand information and
experience in the 1680s.