Introduction

Miniature painting of Cilicia, a small Armenian Kingdom that existed on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea from 1080 to 1375, is one of the most exciting phenomena in the history of Armenian art. Talented miniaturists of the scriptorium at Hromkla stand out in the constellation of the 13th-century Cilician painters, Toros Roslin, the fascinating master of the brush, being the most prominent personality among them.
The works of Toros Roslin occupy the most significant place in the book painting of the Cilician state and medieval Armenia. His art is dealt with in many books and articles in different languages of the world, and his name is mentioned in various publications concerning the history and culture of Armenia.
Illustrative cycles of miniatures are of special interest in the heritage of the splendid master. Full-page illustrations of his codices in many respects predetermined the evolutionary trends in the iconography and style of the Cilician book painting of subsequent decades in the 13th century. Many unknown miniatures of the artist, preserved in the manuscripts in various collections all over the world and published in the last few decades permit marking out illustrative cycles of miniatures and grouping them to study the evolution of the most significant themes in Roslin's creative work.
Roslin's and his colleagues' knowledge of the art of the peoples in the Mediterranean states and West European countries influenced the illustrative cycles of these manuscripts. The significance of this problem resides in the fact that the appearance of full-page miniatures in the book painting of Roslin workshop radically changed the system of illustrating in Armenian manuscripts.
It is not possible to evaluate all originality of Roslin's creative work and the logic of the genesis of illustrative cycles over the course of his entire career, not having reconstructed the integral picture of cultural contacts of the Cilician Armenian state and other countries.