BEAUTIFUL "HMAYIL" PROPHYLACTIC ROLLER Probably Ottoman Empire, 18th or 19th century Armenian manuscript on paper in black ink and pigments, finely copied in bolorgir script, numerous illustrations in cartouches or vignettes interspersed with the text, the end missing, old repairs to the reverse. Size: 556 cm (length) Provenance: Former J-P C. collection, France Then by descent to the current owner The illustrations are as follows: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; The Adoration of the Magi; Portrait of a Saint; The Twelve Apostles; Virgin and Child; Three Portraits of Saints; Sacrifice of Isaac; Saint on Horseback; Archangel; Saint Michael or Saint George. This scroll belongs to the category of hmayil (հմայիլ), Armenian prophylactic manuscripts intended to protect their owners against illness, misfortune or demonic forces. These scrolls, written in classical Armenian and often illustrated, developed from the 15th century onwards and were widely distributed among Armenian communities in the Ottoman Empire in the XVIIIᵉ-XIXᵉ centuries. The text, calligraphed in bolorgir, alternates prayers, invocations and scriptural passages, interspersed with vignettes depicting saints, angels or horsemen victorious over evil. It has parallels in a scroll held by the Library of Congress (GR540.H63 1725), as well as in two scrolls that were sold at Sotheby's London on 2 December 2014, lots 42 and 43. A Long Armenian Illustrated Religious Scroll With Scenes from the Old and New Testaments, Probably Ottoman Empire, 18th or 19th century