The 17th century is considered by many historians to be an era of renewal, the foundation of the Armenian renaissance. This assessment is based mainly on the undeniable success of Armenian traders, in particular from new julfa, in international trade, but also on an increase in the level of education of PRIESTS and consequently of literary and artistic creation, with printing being no stranger to this phenomenon. We will focus here on the objective reasons for these changes and in particular on the action of the Armenian elites, whose status we will seek to define within the political framework of the Ottoman and Safavid Empires. We will then consider the central role of the merchant and ecclesiastical networks in the development of Armenian publishing activities in Europe, where they were concentrated almost exclusively in the 17th century. We will insist in particular on the circumstances that presided over the publication of the first Bible in Armenian, in Amsterdam, to illustrate our point.