Apkar Tebir

Infobox Person
name = Apkar Tebir


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birth_date = ?
birth_place = Tokat, Turkey
death_date =
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education = Knowledge of printing press
occupation = Colonist
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spouse =
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nationality = Armenian [The Journal of Modern History - Page 437]

Apkar Tebir was an Armenian colonist and priest. He was one of the first to set up a printing press in Constantinople.

Life and influence

Apkar Tebir was born in Tokat, Turkey. He studied typography in Venice, and in 1567, set up a printing press in Constantinople, one of the first to do so. [Zartarian, III, 254-67] [History of Education in Armenia - Page 194 by Gēorg A. Sarafean, Kevork Avedis Sarafian] [Acta orientalia Academiae scientiarum Hungaricae - Page 66 by Magyar Tudományos Akadémia] In 1627, he obtained a Greek printing press, built by Nicodemus Metaxas, which had its machinery and type imported from England. [Tradition and Innovation - Page 118 by Benjamin Rivlin, Joseph S. Szyliowicz]

This had an important effect on Turkish Armenia and the Mediterranean world. The most notable was that of cultural repair, mainly though the colonists' work to restore Armenia's heritage through the medium of the printed page. [The Armenian Renaissance, 1500-1863, by Harry Jewell Sarkiss p.438]

These activities showed their readiness to join in the European Renaissance, and they quickly undertook the task of broadening their compatriots' knowledge of the West. The Armenians also lent assistance during the Crusades, which helped a warm relationship develop between the Gregorian and the Roman Catholic churches. [Jacques Jean Marie de Morgan, Histoire du peuple armenien [Paris, 1921] p.239]

ee also

*Armenian Renaissance

References