Manuscripts from the 18th century called Gnanamuyarchi have been found in an Armenian monastery in northern Italy.
The finds throw ample light on the rich history and cultural exchange between different regions of the time.
The discovery was made by Tamil Bharathan, a doctoral scholar at the Special Center for Tamil Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), who was allowed access to the manuscripts.
Manuscripts were safely stored inside the monastery. According to Bharata, he was allowed to read the manuscripts only after several days of persuasion.
He was in Italy after being invited to attend a seminar on Greek Paleography at the headquarters of the Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice.
To learn more about the manuscripts, Bharat sought the help of Margherita Trento, a professor who has studied the history of the literary and social techniques employed by Roman Catholics to localize Christianity in early modern Tamil Nadu.
According to him, it could be a copy of the first translation of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius into Tamil.
